Settlement reached to close Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter – ending more than a decade of discord (Atlanta: taxes, station)

[atlHawks]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Interesting point. I live over on the westside, and frequently travel down that stretch of Howell Mill where the Atlanta Mission is. Never really noticed homeless people milling about. In fact, I'm not even sure I was aware there was an actual shelter there. But, around Peachtree Pine, it's like the campground for Woodstock...a bunch of random homeless people just milling around and hanging on street corners and in parking lots. It's a completely different scene. And it's not a scene that helps Midtown out at all.

I had no idea there was one on Howell Mill either. Huh. I googled it and it looks like the two around there are for women and children.

[Hokiehaven]

Originally Posted by atlHawks

I had no idea there was one on Howell Mill either. Huh. I googled it and it looks like the two around there are for women and children.

Yes, I've walked near that one and it's relatively clean and nice. It's quiet and people aren't about.

There's one downtown too that people don't notice. The people go outside, but not all the time and they are usually just smoking or something, it's not like the scene at PP, which is horrible.

[LynnHarris1]

Here is a video clip from WSB...

PEACHTREE PINE: Troubled homeless shelter to shut down in August | WSB-TV

[CA_Vol]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

If Reed is true to his word, and / or if the next mayor continues the idea, then they should be.

We really need a comprehensive overhaul of our homeless programs. A network of small, generic shelters dispersed across the city, with an overlapping of more specialty shelters for higher-risk groups. All need to be readily accessible by transit, and should be in / near density that allows them to handle many tasks on their own without needing to travel too far. Libraries, grocers, emergency clinics, police stations, etc.

We also need real access to drug rehabilitation, mental healthcare, and physical healthcare. Get those who are trapped by illness, of whatever kind, the treatment they need.

Increased jobs training and education opportunities would be extremely helpful as well, of course, and having counselor staff attached to the shelters would help those having trouble adjusting to their new lives.


I won't pretend to know how much of everything is needed, or in what orders or to what extent, or even what all is already available, but just looking in from the outside it seems like whatever system we're using to try and handle our homeless just isn't working. From the outside it seems as if everything is on its own little island, without nearly enough cross-promotion or truly integrated assistance. I know that we can do better than what we've got now.

I hope you pay a massive amount of taxes, because, if not, you're great at spending other people's money.

[fieldm]

Just saw a homeless guy peeing In the street during the day on yesterday in downtown

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by CA_Vol

I hope you pay a massive amount of taxes, because, if not, you're great at spending other people's money.

Unfortunately, the only way many of the problems conservatives whine about will be fixed is by having government-sponsored programs help. "The market" is not good at taking care of the least fortunate among us.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by Hokiehaven

Yes, I've walked near that one and it's relatively clean and nice. It's quiet and people aren't about.

There's one downtown too that people don't notice. The people go outside, but not all the time and they are usually just smoking or something, it's not like the scene at PP, which is horrible.

There are people milling about around that shelter. They're just on the backside of that block headed towards Northside. They do a good job of keeping them off Howell Mill, but I'm pretty sure once those blocks in between 14th and 10th get more developed, then some folks will have an issue with it. Just go to the CFA on Northside, you'll see folks milling around as y'all call it. Also that shelter is for women and children only I think, while the Peachtree and Pine shelter is men and is also basically a hold over from Techwood. A lot of those guys truly are homesless. But some are just J's that moved a few blocks east when Techwood got torn down. I don't think most realize how much of a draw certain areas are just off reputation and it's name. And that's something tearing a building down or housing complex won't accomplish. Since the 80s Techwood & Pine was a destination known throughout the south as somewhere a crackhead could get their fix. They tore the bricks down, and all the customers just moved a few blocks east. Same way that the Bluff is on the lips of every heroin junkie from Texas to Carolina. You can close the shelter, but all they'll do is just move somewhere else nearby and turn that area into a trap. If you don't believe me, up this thread in 2-3 years when some nearby area has seen a huge increase in drug activity and the stuff that goes along with it.

[tikigod311]

I won't argue that some of the activity will move somewhere else, but eliminating a known spot where lawlessness is tolerated will reduce the behavior. Not all the way, maybe not even the majority of it right off the bat. But knocking this shelter out will probably change Atlanta's overall reputation among the homeless. For the better. Maybe we aren't the big city where anything goes anymore.

The women that stay along Northside are very docile. It is nothing like the homeless that congregate around Peachtree Pine. Although, I don't understand why there is a day shelter but not a night shelter for these women. They largely disappear in the day relative to how many are sleeping along storefronts. It is unreasonable that we can't provide housing for these people.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by CA_Vol

I hope you pay a massive amount of taxes, because, if not, you're great at spending other people's money.

Well, let's see... we already pay more per-capita for what crappy national healthcare we have compared to many other developed nations, so make that all single-payer and we'll save a ton of money while opening up more help for those who can't afford it, including the homeless.

We already pay a ton of money to lock up non-violent drug offenders in jails, and even more in the policing policies to put them there. We could, instead, use that money for community policing and rehabilitation programs that would help the homeless situation.

If we had proper national access to higher-education, retraining courses and such could easily be folded into a national college & trade school program. I'd have no qualms about paying into such a system even though I've already graduated considering it'll make us money in the long run by increasing economic opportunity and mobility, as well as supply employers with more skilled labor.

If we reworked our zoning laws, and moved away from subsidizing the automobile to the ridiculous level we do, then density would increase, bringing in more economically sustainable cities while also improving access to various amenities, and increasing the usefulness of public transit. That's resulting in something that pays off for towns, cities, and the nation without even increasing taxes.


Let's see... that's healthcare, rehab, education, and access to resources with only one actual tax increase that still results in better living over all.

Yeah, I'd say that's acceptable.

Then again, even if implementing all of this required a tax increase, I'd still be okay for it. OUR money, the collective power of the citizens, should go to taking care of those who can't pull themselves up no matter how many boot straps you throw at them.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by CA_Vol

I hope you pay a massive amount of taxes, because, if not, you're great at spending other people's money.

It is interesting how folks can gladly pay exhorbitant taxes for roads, transit and othe such things, but when it comes to looking after the least fortunate of us, they come up with stuff like this. It is truly pathetic.