Homeless wary as Atlanta closes its last-resort shelter
ATLANTA — Cities across the U.S. are trying to encourage the homeless to find beds of their own, not just a cot for the night. In theory, no one should stay in a shelter very long.
Atlanta is putting this idea to a hard, real-world test by closing its last shelter of last resort.
For decades, as many as 1,000 people with nowhere else to turn could come off the street at Peachtree and Pine, no questions asked. But years of litigation wore down the shelter’s operators. After epic battles against the city, tuberculosis, bed bugs and other hazards, the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless settled out of court and sold its enormous industrial building to Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown business group.
Relocating the people inside will be done in a “humane manner,” Central Atlanta Progress promised ahead of this month’s slow-motion shutdown. Starting Monday, the shelter will turn away newcomers, and current residents will be gradually moved out.