"SoNo" held back by shelter? (Atlanta: eviction, lawyer)

[imb951]

Originally Posted by koko339

via the website of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance (which, btw has some fascinating info):
Peachtree Pine near its end?

November 23, 2010 · Posted in Bulletins, Eye on Midtown

The new owner of Peachtree Pine shelter building is expecting a resolution to all legal issues and in obtaining unfettered access to the building before the end of this year. According to a plan presented last week, the current residents of the shelter will be transitioned out of Peachtree Pine and into a variety of existing structured services across the city. This new program, Uplift Atlanta, is a consortium of non-profits, corporate sponsorships, political support, faith-based institutions, United Way, Union Mission, Salvation Army, medical facilities, community volunteers, training and job resources throughout the City of Atlanta all working together to make this transition possible.
When the building is finally empty, it will be totally renovated into a multi-purpose building to be used for non-profit purposes. There will be office space built to rent to non-profit groups, a cafe (operated partly as a job training opportunity) located along the Peachtree Street side and space provided for 45 emergency or overflow beds for homeless. The emergency housing will be limited to a maximum of 45 days as a stop gap which includes assessment for needed services. Profits will be directed towards scholarships for homeless women with children.
Hopefully, we can soon look forward to the 500 + men, who leave there each day and come into the neighborhoods, to instead be in transitional or supportive housing and on their way to becoming productive citizens. It has been a long hard road...

Peachtree Pine near its end? : Midtown Ponce Security Alliance

This is great news! I'd much rather see a potential maximum of 45 loiterers waiting on overflow beds on the Peachtree Street side than 500 every day littering and buying/selling drugs on all sides and adjacent blocks.

[imb951]

Is anyone else looking forward to enjoying Renaissance Park without worrying about being panhandled or worse by shelter residents? I am.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Arjay, I'd swear you've been listening to Neal Boortz, who advocates 'Economic Refugee Camps'. The idea actually makes sense.

Ha! Well, I haven't heard Neal say it, but to me it's just common sense. If I were homeless, a cold, downtown street would not be my first choice.

There really is a great deal of tried and true wisdom in Dr. Hope's book. Atlanta was not some podunk town in those days either -- we were a sizable urban settlement of half a million people. So we're not talking about something that couldn't be done today.

And personally I don't see any reason to gloss over reality by referring to "the homeless" as if they were some mysterious and unknowable caste that has to be shunned and shunted from shelter to shelter. For the most part these are just poor people who need to be put back on their feet.

[BringBackCobain]

I cant say im excited bout them putting another homeless shelter in there. I realize 45 beds isnt much, but why does there need to be a shelter there at all? I mean this is Peachtree Street - there are so many better uses for that property and so many better places for a shelter. Plus, we dont know how this is going to be managed - will people be allowed to come and go as they please? Will there be drug tests? Will it be restricted to women and children only? Will there be a line to get in every night?

I will say it will be an improvement from what was there before, even if its not the best result. Now the city needs to put pressure on the Bedford Pine Apartments. If those could be demolished, there wont be anything holding SoNo back.

[imb951]

Does anyone have information on what day the eviction is taking place?

Recent comments from an insider:

Hello all. I agree with Former TF Volunteer (and everyone else, really). I have stayed at Peachtree & Pine Shelter (PPS)/Task Force for the Homeless (TF) and have volunteered there. There is no infrastructure and no real supervision or management. I think the problem with the battle between TF and the city, etc., is that people who have the same basic intention (to help the homeless) disagree on how to proceed. There's more than enough impropriety in TF to have it legally shut down. The best course of action for the Beatys, in my opinion, is to make some type of deal with some of these organizations and people in the city (such as Fialkow) and acquire the money and assistance to build one or more GOOD shelters around the city with PAID and RESPONSIBLE staff. If your enemy offered you two million dollars, with no strings attached, to vacate some dilapidated property, it's no time to recoil and say, "I'm not taking anything from my enemies." The homeless men need help, not 'mothering'.

I've sat through very lengthy and drawn out TF meetings internally shaking my head in sincere disapproval. Goodwill doesn't always equal good work. TF should make a compromise, move to another property (one or more properties), and help homeless men rather than fight those who are so-called 'bad guys'. Needless to say, I never said any of this at TF, but they didn't like me there, because I couldn't hide my disapproval from the many who either loved the lack of responsibility they enjoy at TF or those whom senseless zeal blinded into 'fighting for the underdog'. Trying not to be biased or bitter about the goings at TF, I must say I have never seen anything so disastrous and mismanaged nor a group of people so sadly deluded. I truly hope that good comes of it all.

[koko339]

For all of you who would like to enjoy a cup of joe at this lovely establishment, a coffeehouse ('Blend') has opened up on the Peachtree St side of the shelter. It sounds like everything, including the coffee, is being donated. I love how Jim Beaty mentions that water is one of their offerings.
Homeless shelter opens coffee shop | Atlanta Food & Drink Blog | Omnivore | Creative Loafing Atlanta

In other news, the new owner of the building is set to take the shelter to court in order to kick them out: Peachtree Pine Hearing on 12/09 : Midtown Ponce Security Alliance

[imb951]

Thanks Koko, so this weekend there should be some very interesting developments after the trial. Looking forward to the eviction and enjoying a cleaner, safer SoNo!

[imb951]

So the hearing was yesterday afternoon. Did anyone attend? Who has the results?

Just posted from Jim Beaty's blog:

December 10, 2010
I know no legal terms. My son, Christian, and his son, Eli, both are Karate BROWNBELTS. They have taught me a few terms. Judge Schwall gave Scott Bonder and Ichthus and Manny Fialkow an Inside Crescent Kick to the head in his courtroom yesterday. I’ll explain later.
jim beaty

[imb951]

Bump

[imb951]

Latest from Beaty's blog about the court case:

Ratchet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter will be deposed at 10 this morning at his OLD stomping grounds, Atlanta City Hall. Hunter served as Shirley Franklin’s Commissioner of the Department of Water Mismanagement. The brightest moments of his tenure were the three times Debi Starnes told him to turn off the water at The Peachtree Pine Community where 700 citizens of Atlanta live. His demise came, however, when he irritated the citizens of Buckhead. There are citizens with rights and there are citizens.


In Atlanta the withholder of water from people who A. J. Robinson says are “down on their luck” gets applause from the warm crowds that Peggy Denby orchestrates from her bunker. But if you buck Buchhead, you’re gone.


Speaking of “gone,” Debi Starnes was deposed yesterday for a second five and a half hours. Among her answers was one in which she said that she is no longer paid by United Way or ADID or CAP. Debi and I frequent the same Tavern. We chatted for a New York minute on December 2. I told her the Task Force Board members wanted to know who pays her now. She told me that her busines pays her now.



This must be true. The way the truth works with Starnes is this. If she makes a statement two or three times, it becomes the truth. Do I see little pointed toes of that doer of all good sticking out from under the bus? Has her scepter as Czar, a broom, been taken away?


In an earlier blog I wrote that Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter was the first of TEAM GOLIATH champions to fall. He becomes toast on New Years day. Conspiracies make such stangest bedfellows. And sometimes they wind up under the bus together. Watch for more on strange bedfellows.