Homeless shelter announces civil rights complaint during rally (Atlanta: foreclosure, eviction)

[noah]

Homeless shelter announces civil rights complaint during rally *| ajc.com

Controversial homeless shelter vows to fight eviction after foreclosure *| ajc.com

"We won't agree to be evicted," Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless director Anita Beaty told the AJC Thursday. She said she hasn't received any official notice of the foreclosure and isn't aware if the task force will be asked to vacate the 100,000-square-foot structure, located on a valuable parcel of land on the edge of downtown.

City officials, led by homeless czar Debi Starnes, have contended the shelter's philosophy of housing men without requiring them to take steps such as entering a drug-treatment program prolongs their life on the streets.

Neighborhood groups that border Peachtree and Pine would also like to see the task force vacate downtown.

Peggy Denby, president of the Midtown-Ponce Security Alliance, has said the shelter is "the biggest source of crime" in her neighborhood.

Beaty disputes that and said the men she serves are "terrified" of losing the shelter, with rumors rampant that the task force will be evicted by month's end. "We're hearing a lot of things," she said. "We just don't know."



"We have to save this building," Anita Beaty, the task force's executive director, said during the protest. "This building is our emergency respite and home."

[midtown mile girl]

Midtown Ponce Security Alliance has been documenting thier problems with this shelter for years; and if the shelter is not offering any programs to help get these men off the streets then it's creating problems, not solving them.

[koko339]

They don't own the building - what right do they have to be there? Is squatting legal?

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by koko339

They don't own the building - what right do they have to be there? Is squatting legal?

I find it odd they even had a mortgage given the building was donated by the estate of a Coke Heiress. No doubt poor fiscal management led them to leverage the building and then spend it on operations w/o any thought to how to survive down the road w/ a higher cash burn rate. Given they were a donations driven non-profit entity w/ highly uneven cash flow, who in their right mind would trade for future payments for a lump sum of cash to make it through the next couple months? Given they couldn't even keep the water on after tapping into the equity, the place was clearly an inefficiently run nightmare.

I'm pretty sure they can forced to vacate if they try squatting as unpleasant as arresting hundreds of homeless people is. There's no ownership dispute since its a clear title and the owner is clearly involved with it still. It's not abandoned property and Beaty doesn't have a leg to stand on if she signed the mortgage paperwork and then didn't pay it.