The city is eyeing shipping containers to help rapidly rehouse Atlantans currently experiencing homelessness. Mayor Andre Dickens signed an executive order last week authorizing the chief financial officer to allocate $4 million toward the initiative that will use shipping containers as a low-cost building option.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency shipping containers were previously used by the state to build temporary hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic when cases overwhelmed emergency rooms. The city is hoping the same strategy will help ease the cumbersome process of sheltering unhoused Atlantans.
“Any one of us are just one bad day away from finding ourselves needing a hand-up to get back on our feet,” Dickens said. “Working with our partners and City Council, and using a little innovation, we will swiftly deploy these resources to give folks the support they need and deserve.”
The mayor’s office has already picked a place to put them: a downtown parking lot at 184 Forsyth St. located near the Garnett MARTA station with the long-term goal of developing permanent mixed-income housing on the property.
Atlantans in the rapid housing program will have access to services like mental health and substance abuse treatment, education and employment opportunities.
The city’s recent “point-in-time count” of Atlantans living without a roof over their head showed numbers have gone up since last year.
Atlanta’s homeless population in January was 2,679 — 738 people found sleeping on the streets on the night of Jan. 23, and an additional 1,941 people who were living in shelters from Jan. 23-30 — according to the annual Point in Time Count of the city’s homeless.
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Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
A car accident involving a city employee in 2021 sparked an internal audit by the Office of the Inspector General into the city’s drug testing policies when an employee gets into an accident while driving a city car.
The audit released this month, tells the story of a Department of Public Works employee who ran a red light while on his cellphone and crashed into another vehicle. Initially at the scene, the employee told responding officers that it was the other driver’s fault and he wasn’t administered a required drug or alcohol test.
Five days later the employee tested negative for substances and cleared to return to work. But a whistleblower complaint to the inspector general’s office prompted an investigation into if the city was complying with its own rules.
The audit found that most of the time the city was not complying with post-accident procedures correctly when an employee is involved in a car accident. City code requires employees who are using their cellphones while driving to be terminated and accident-involved employees to reimburse the city for damages if it was deemed their fault. Both of which haven’t been happening.
Across four departments the audit determined there was a whopping $322,000 in vehicle damages by employees in 2022 that hadn’t been paid back to the city.
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The 74-acre Bowen Homes neighborhood is about to get a facelift after being abandoned for more than a decade. The crime-ridden housing project was considered by some as one of the most dangerous places in Atlanta.
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams announced a $40 million federal grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development that will go toward building more than 2,000 rental and ownership units in the desolate area.
“As this project continues to grow, I am confident it will grow in a way that delivers more for the people that will call this neighborhood home for many years to come,” Williams said last week. “The revitalized Bowen Homes Neighborhood will give people a place to get their feet under them, because they will have a roof over their head and the support they need outside their doorstep.”
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Atlanta residents on Twitter might be having some deja vu after two identical but vastly different accounts started popping up in their feeds. The city of Atlanta created a new account @AtlSafetyCtr to share updates and news about the controversial public safety training facility. Dickens has voiced frequent frustration with “misinformation” about the project spreading like wildfire.
But the effort is thwarted by another new (parody) account @Atlsafetctr which shares the same logo as the city’s page but pokes fun at officials.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
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