Since we can't seem to shut down the Pine Street shelter (Atlanta: crime, dorms)

[ATLTJL]

Will someone at least donate a couple of dumpsters or a ton of trash cans?

I just drove by that place and it is inexcusable. It looks like a garbage dump exploded right in front of it.

Politics of the shelter aside, can't the city at least make them keep it clean out front? I mean, really, they ouught to just tell everyone if they want to stay there, they need to spend 5 minutes out front helping pick up first!

What an eyesore.

[Zanarkand A East]

This one block is holding back the entire city. Shut it down already!

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by Zanarkand A East

This one block is holding back the entire city. Shut it down already!

[tonygeorgia]

At least that gate was put up across the street lol

[Nanosolar]

I thought the city agreed to close this place? What happened?

[arjay57]

Why can't a handful of rich people come along and donate $100 million to relocate this facility to a nice pastoral setting in Cobb or Gwinnett where it belongs? Where is the humanity and the can-do civic spirit?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Why can't a handful of rich people come along and donate $100 million to relocate this facility to a nice pastoral setting in Cobb or Gwinnett where it belongs? Where is the humanity and the can-do civic spirit?

cause the shelter has to be accessible or it won't be used by those that need it most.

I bet there is a nice lovely site near the Oakland City or Hamilton Holmes MARTA station and the people using the shelter might lower crime by scaring criminals away.

... and while we are at it... part of the problem is concentrating social services... not necessarily offering. Spread it out among smaller centers a few blocks off the main roads.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

cause the shelter has to be accessible or it won't be used by those that need it most.

Well, that's a very good point, cw.

What I was really trying to get at is that downtown in a major city is an awful place for a homeless shelter. You've got nothing but pavement in all directions.

Put the shelter in a campus like setting where you can create some dorms and other facilities. Poole need a place where they can walk around, breathe fresh air and feel like they are part of a community, not just castoffs on a city street.

Fulton County has a number of excellent health centers all over the city, most of which have very good transit access. We should look at these locations for starters.

Fulton County Public Health Centers & Office Locations - Google Maps

The campus should also incorporate a first rate job training center, an ID facility where people can get ID cards and other legal documents, a mental health triage and screening program, a place where children can be helped, and the full gamut of services needed to get folks back on their feet.

As much as this country spends on such things we ought to be able to focus on the homeless and get this problem straightened out.

Shunting people to some cold, concrete-surrounded building downtown where they can get a meal and a cot and them putting them right back out on the street isn't accomplishing a darn thing.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Put the shelter in a campus like setting where you can create some dorms and other facilities. Poole need a place where they can walk around, breathe fresh air and feel like they are part of a community, not just castoffs on a city street.


The campus should also incorporate a first rate job training center, an ID facility where people can get ID cards and other legal documents, a mental health triage and screening program, a place where children can be helped, and the full gamut of services needed to get folks back on their feet.



Shunting people to some cold, concrete-surrounded building downtown where they can get a meal and a cot and them putting them right back out on the street isn't accomplishing a darn thing.

Man I love that idea arjay! Humane and effective. Lots of green space down there on the SE side of town...

Enough of the revolving door of perpetual homelessness that is the Pine St shelter!

[ATLTJL]

The shelter is fine anywhwere so long as it is close to public transit and medical care so the people can go to jobs if they have them and get health treatment.

I was poking around on the Atlanta Task Force For The Homeless website, the people who run the shelter, and it says they have transportation to bring homeless people to and from the shelter (they own a bus). Still, being on MARTA is probably a necessity.

The site says that anyone seen outside the shelter after 7pm is not staying there because they have to be in by then. I'm not sure if I believe that because there are always people outside there, and if you weren't staying there why would you congregate outside a shelter?

Another very interesting thing the site says is that anybody in the parks or streets was not turned away from the shelter because it is full. The only reason anybody is denied access to the shelter is if they refuse to obey shelter rules. So I guess there is no reason to feel sorry for people you see on the street, they are only there because they couldn't obey the very lenient rules of the shelter. Probably they are on drugs and violent. You can stay at the shelter even if you are on drugs becuase it is against the policy, but they do not drug test. So you would have to be obviously drugged out. Bottom line, the people you see on the street either do not want to seek help or they are junkies who were denied help until they clean up. Of course, you always have the mentally ill, who could fall into either category.

I really have no problem with the work the shelter does. Heck, I don't even care if they want to keep it where it is or put it on 10th and Peachtree. The issue is they have to keep it up. Why can't it be like other shelters, where when you pass by it you would have no idea it was a shelter. Is it too much to ask to have them keep it tidy and keep people from constantly loitering outside? Every other metro Atlanta shelter has figured out how to accomplish this.

I think people don't hate that shelter because of what it is and what it does, they hate it because of how poorly it is operated. When you allow people to loiter outside and wallow in filth, you're really not doing anything to increase their dignity.