City Council considers halting camp clearings after death of unhoused man

Outrage over the death of a man killed as city workers swept a homeless encampment for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend spilled into City Hall Thursday, with city council members proposing legislation calling for a temporary pause on camp clearings.

Cornelius Taylor was in his tent at an encampment in the 300 block of Old Wheat Street Jan. 16, when a Department of Public Works construction vehicle struck him, according to witnesses.

Speaking outside City Hall to the media Thursday afternoon, civil rights attorney Mawuli Mel Davis, along with religious and community leaders, said there needed to be a change in city policy to prioritize safe and stable housing over camp clearings, which have faced harsh criticism for being cruel and inhumane.

“Full justice means that this will never happen again. Full justice means that they will stop the sweeps,” Davis said.

District 5 Councilwoman Liliana Bakhtiari later introduced legislation calling for a moratorium on clearing encampments until city officials have guarantees they are safe. She criticized the city’s homeless strategy but warned against scapegoating city employees for Taylor’s death.

Mayor Andre Dickens has dedicated much of his first term in office to the issue of affordable housing and rapid rehousing of the homeless population. But his administration has also overseen clearing of several homeless encampments, particularly after a fire blamed on a homeless encampment in December 2023 closed a portion of Cheshire Bridge Road for several months.

Officials in the mayor’s office were not immediately available for comment on the proposed change to its encampment clearing policy. But Dickens issued a prepared statement about Taylor’s death last week.

“I am saddened by this terrible incident and extend my thoughts and prayers to the family of the deceased,” Dickens said. “I care deeply about each and every life in this city. We will review each of our processes and procedures and take every precaution to ensure this never happens again while we continue our important work to house our unsheltered population and bring our neighbors inside.”

Taylor’s cousin, Darlene Chaney, told council members she grew up with Taylor and regarded him as a big brother.

“His spirit was so big that you couldn’t crush it. He was an artist. I remember him as the little boy that played the flute, wanted to go to school and perform, and I wanted to go too because I looked up to him,” she said.

When she first heard news of Taylor’s death after listening to a voicemail, she said she didn’t believe it.

“After about two hours, and he didn’t call me, I knew it was true, because he loved me. He was loved,” she said.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Davis said his law firm, Davis Bozeman Johnson Law, would launch an independent investigation for Taylor’s family. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the investigation was a first step and there were no immediate plans to file a lawsuit.

Officials had cleared the camp for the MLK celebration at the nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. was once a pastor, according to the Housing Justice League. City officials did not release the man’s name, but friends, advocates, and family members identified him as Cornelius Taylor.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Partners for Home, which coordinates the city’s homeless strategy, said that outreach to the camp began in April 2024. The group’s CEO, Cathryn Vassell, said Atlanta nonprofit SafeHouse Outreach had people on-site at Old Wheat Street the day Taylor died.

The timing and location of the sweep, on a street close to a church where King had delivered sermons, was not lost on housing advocates.

“In the shadow of Ebenezer, within eyeshot of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a man was killed by a city’s failed policy,” said Timothy Franzen of the American Friends Service Committee.

Before entering council chambers, family members and activists tried to deliver a letter to Mayor Andre Dickens’ office asking for him to meet with Taylor’s family. City officials wouldn’t let them into the executive offices to deliver it, though one official offered to do it for them, according to the family.

“They stopped the public from delivering a letter to the mayor,” Franzen said. “This is the people’s house. This ain’t the police station.”