Fewer Homeless, But Not Enough Shelter

A federal report shows Georgia's large homeless population shrank between 2007 and 2008, but found there was not enough shelter space available statewide and more than half of Georgia's homeless go unsheltered. The 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Thursday, found there were 19,095 homeless people living in Georgia in 2008. That's down from 19,639 in 2007. The report also found Georgia was one of only eight states where the majority of homeless were unsheltered. It found 54 percent of Georgia's homeless were typically unsheltered, but said warm weather may encourage homeless to sleep outdoors. According to the report, there are 13,936 beds available for homeless statewide.

(Associated Press)

Atlanta United Way Nears Fundraising Goal

United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta says it has raised almost all of the $82 million the charitable organization set out to raise through its current fundraising campaign.

So far, the organization says it has $80.5 million toward the goal, which was announced six months ago.

The organization's new theme urges would-be donors to "live united" by showing their concern for less fortunate neighbors through cash and volunteering.

The organization recently has focused on placing homeless in supportive housing and expanding a statewide hot line for the impoverished.

(AP)

Charity Battling Donor Fatigue, Obama Inauguration

A 38-year-old charity that supplies food to Atlanta's poorest residents has decided to go forward with an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day dinner despite lowered donations and many volunteers leaving town for the presidential inauguration.

Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless organizers told The Associated Press Wednesday that a lack of donations - including corporate gifts of hams and turkeys - meant the dinner wouldn't take place. Spokeswoman Dee Dee Cocheta later got word that a donation of hams would come through after all. Combined with a modest gift of 216 turkeys Tuesday, it's enough to let the dinner go on.

But the group still faces a struggle. Organizers say many of the staff who would have worked at the dinner will be in Washington for the inauguration.

In related news, President-elect Barack Obama says the inauguration is about more than him, and that it should be about getting all Americans involved in community service.

Obama said Wednesday that his Jan. 20 inauguration should bring the country together to volunteer. He says if everyone rolls up their sleeves, the county will improve. Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and their families will volunteer in the Washington area
Jan. 19.

Obama's aides have posted thousands of volunteer opportunities on a Web site, USAService.org.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News reports about homelessness and hunger issues in Georgia.

Economy hobbles aid to homeless

Beneath the glowing red Coca-Cola headquarters sign, case worker Hylda Jackson bargains with one of Atlanta's homeless.

Jackson wants to know if Harry Byrd would like his own apartment. If he says no, he'll remain among the 750,000 homeless sprinkled across the nation's streets and shelters each night.

In Atlanta and other cities, a sense of urgency has settled over the efforts of advocates such as Jackson.

The recession is catching many of the nation's largest cities in the middle of pioneering 10-year plans to drastically reduce the number of chronically homeless and channeling them into apartments with built-in case workers.

"It's the start of tough times," said Protip Biswas, executive director of United Way Atlanta's Regional Commission on Homelessness.

Biswas is asking his own case workers to nearly double their load.

Atlanta's 5-year-old program is considered one of the most successful - it's created 1,600 units of supportive housing for the chronically homeless. Of 750 people recently tracked through the program, 90 percent remained housed after a year.

In turn, chronic homelessness is down 16 percent in the metro area.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News coverage about homeless issues statewide.

Macon makes homeless sweep

Macon police are cracking down on the homeless. During sweeps yesterday, people living in tents and under bridges were directed to city shelters. The sweeps followed complaints from residents troubled by the tents along the Ocmulgee river walk and people under bridges near downtown. Officials from the Macon Rescue Mission outreach center were on hand to provide information about substance-abuse treatment and 24-hour residency. Other efforts to aid homeless in Macon include shelter space planned a women's shelter planned for the estimated 1,000 female homeless in the city.

(Associated Press)

Georgia top court strikes down sex offender law provision

Georgia’s top court has thrown another strike against the state’s tough sex offender law. The Georgia Supreme Court says it is "cruel and unusual punishment" to require an automatic life prison sentence for sex offenders who repeatedly fail to register. The court’s 6-1 decision throws out the life sentence of Cedric Bradshaw. The 25-year-old was arrested for failing to register as an offender, after spending weeks trying to find a place to live that did not violate the law’s residential restrictions. Earlier, the Court struck down another provision that required homeless offenders to register their address, calling it unconstitutionally vague.

Shelter kitchen opens in Atlanta

The beds are warm in the homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine Streets, but dinner often is another matter.

The midtown Atlanta shelter -- among the state's largest -- has lacked a kitchen or even a microwave oven to cook meals. Instead, it depends on local churches to prepare, store and transport enough food to feed the nearly 1,000 people it serves daily.

The shelter on Friday dedicated "Feast," a kitchen and dining room that will enable shelter volunteers to prepare food on site and serve it in a family style environment.

The kitchen also will serve as a training ground for homeless volunteers looking for a new vocation.

Food will come from local food banks. Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, which runs the shelter, said a rooftop garden eventually will provide
fresh herbs for hearty meals.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the homeless.

(AP)

Georgia court: Sex offender provision unfair

Georgia's top court has ruled a provision in Georgia's strict new sex offender law is unconstitutional because it fails to tell homeless offenders how they can comply with the
law.

The law is designed to keep sex offenders away from children by monitoring how close they live to schools, parks and other spots where kids gather. But critics say it unfairly subjects homeless offenders to a life sentence if they fail to register a home address.

The Georgia Supreme Court's 6-1 decision Monday found the law's registration requirements were "unconstitutionally vague." But the opinion went on to say that homeless offenders are not exempt from the statute, and suggested special reporting requirements for the homeless.
---
On the Net: http://www.gasupreme.us

(AP)

Some GA veterans may soon be homeless

(Photo: Carl Zornes)

Governor Sonny Perdue honored Georgia veterans in the State Capitol today by declaring November 11th Veterans Day.

“That’s what Veterans Day’s about. Men and women and courage and valor – individual and as a group, fighting for freedom in America.”

But some of the less fortunate veterans may soon be homeless.

Because of state budget cuts, residents of the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville could be without a place to live come November 30th. Dale Parham says he's one of them.

“On August 28 we was given the eviction notice, in the form of a letter, asking us to be out – to vacate the premises by November the 30^th.”

Parham attended the ceremony with hopes of speaking with the Governor. But right after the event ended, Gov. Perdue was quickly escorted away.

Democrat leader of the State Senate Robert Brown said that it's all a matter of how the state's money is budgeted.

"You're talking about $2.7 million out of a $20 million budget. A budget in which you have programs like Go Fish Georgia. A budget in which you have horsefarms and other things that we are funding. And you are saying that you can't spend $2.7 million to help veterans who have fought and bled for this country... That is poppycock."

Brown said he hopes public attention will get the governor to intervene and stop the evictions.

Panhandler meters unveiled

Atlanta unveiled a new kind of sidewalk meter today. They don’t collect money for parking, they collect change for pandhandlers. The blue and yellow meters resemble regular parking meters, but are designed to encourage tourists and others to insert their change rather than give it to panhandlers. The money collected will be distributed to homeless service agencies.

Keys residents weigh evacuation, Gulf Coast next?

NOAA satellite photo of Hurricane Ike, Sunday afternoon. Click on the image for the latest National Weather Service reports.

With powerful Hurricane Ike still hundreds of miles away and on an uncertain course, residents on these low-lying islands weighed evacuation orders Sunday, perhaps a hint that Gulf Coast residents as far away as Texas and New Orleans may not heed similar calls to leave.

Sunday's forecast had Ike crossing Cuba and headed into the Gulf of Mexico later this week. The Florida Keys were in an uncertain position, and Gulf Coast states even more so. In Texas and Louisiana, where people were just returning from the mass evacuation for a weaker-than-expected Gustav, officials already acknowledged that it may be difficult to get people mobilized again.

In Key West, many residents have their own formula for determining whether to leave. Even though evacuation orders became mandatory Sunday, traffic out of Key West was busy but not jammed.

Mike Tilson, 24, was in wait-and-see mode Sunday, stocking up his Key West houseboat with supplies.

"I got tarps and champagne," he said as he pushed a wheelbarrow of supplies including Heineken beer, ice and a loaf of bread down the dock.

He said if the storm tracks north of Cuba, he'd evacuate. Otherwise, he won't leave even if Key West is expecting a Category 3 (winds of 111-130 mph). "It's just a good party. I'll stay."

At 2 p.m. EDT Sunday, Ike was a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 135 mph, moving west at 13 mph. Hurricane force winds stretched 60 miles from the center. It was forecast to track over Cuba, re-emerging over the island's western coast Tuesday morning about 100 miles south of Key West as a Category 1.

Though forecasts suggested the storm was headed into the Gulf, historically, most major storms passing by Ike's position had curved northward. If it gets into the Gulf, it could head anywhere from Texas to the Florida Panhandle, and it likely would strengthen again.

President Bush declared a state of emergency for Florida because of Ike on Sunday and ordered federal money to supplement state and local response efforts.

More than 60 residents and nearly 90 people from a homeless shelter had arrived at a shelter at Florida International University in Miami by afternoon, but many others said they wanted to see what the storm does over Cuba and possibly reassess on Monday.

Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson had a warning for people not wanting to evacuate the area. He said anyone who thinks staying through a major hurricane is "champagne time is someone who hasn't thought it through clearly." He said emergency vehicles would be pulled off the road if the area gets tropical storm force winds.

McPherson said 15,000 tourists had already evacuated the region, and the Key West airport was set to close at 7 p.m. Sunday. Passengers bound for Key West from the Miami International Airport were being asked to show identification proving they lived there and only residents were being allowed on Key Westbound flights.

Among those planning to stay in the United States' southernmost city were Claudia Pennington, 61, director of the Key West Art and Historical Society, who said she's staying to care for the group's three buildings and their contents. Don Guess, 50, was putting up plywood on a friend's house Sunday and said he was sticking around because the storm didn't worry him.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News storm coverage.

Over 75,000 homeless in Georgia: report

More than 75,000 people are homeless in Georgia at some time during the year, according to a first-ever statewide study of the problem released on Wednesday.

The report estimates that on any one day, 20,000 people are homeless in the state, with more than half living on the street.

The totals are likely much higher because the study uses the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of homeless, which excludes people who are living with family or friends, those living in motels and migrant workers in dilapidated, unfit housing.

State officials say they hope to use the data gathered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to appeal to lawmakers and private donors for funding for shelters and agencies that help homeless find jobs and places to live. The state's homeless shelters and other agencies don't have enough beds to put a roof over everyone's head, with 7,400 beds for individuals and 5,100 for families.

"This gives us the reality of where we are in this issue," Mike Beatty, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, said during a news conference at Genesis House shelter in Atlanta. "It gives us the basis of where we're headed."

The state plans to conduct the study every year, he said.

The estimates are from surveys and street counts done in 23 counties across the state last year and this year. Kennesaw State University researchers plugged the numbers into a formula designed with U.S. Census data that predicts how many homeless people are in each county.

The numbers are similar to what HUD has estimated for Georgia, Kennesaw State researcher Jennifer Priestley said.

Not all states do such studies, making it difficult to get a national picture or how the Georgia numbers rank. About 750,000 homeless are in the U.S., according to the most recent national estimate from HUD released in 2007.

The study found that the vast majority of the homeless in Georgia are under the age of 54 and hundreds of them are children. According to the Georgia Department of Education, more than 22,000 children in the state's public schools were homeless last school year. That number includes children living on relatives' couches and in motels.

The Georgia study also found that homelessness affects communities of all sizes across the state and not just major metropolitan areas.

"There are homeless people in rural areas of Georgia, it just may look different," said Lindsey Stillman, the lead author on the report. "It's less likely you would see a homeless person on the corner in a rural area than in an urban area. They are living in cars or hidden in the woods."

Click here for more GPB News coverage of homelessness in Georgia.

(With The Associated Press)

GA sex offender law 'unfair' to homeless, say advocates

Civil rights advocates say a strict new Georgia law designed to keep sex offenders away from children punishes the homeless. Georgia's Supreme Court is considering whether the law unfairly subjects homeless offenders to a life sentence if they fail register a home address. The case involves a homeless man and convicted sex offender who was kicked out of a Gainesville homeless shelter two years ago and was arrested three months later on charges he failed to register with Georgia's sex offender list. Defense lawyers say the law is unfair because it bars homeless sex offenders from giving a post office box or simply saying they are homeless. The challenge is among a growing number of cases targeting Georgia's sex offender law, which sponsors declared one of the toughest in the nation when it was adopted in 2006.

After scare, students test negative for TB

Four Cobb County high school students learned today that they do not have active tuberculosis. They came into contact with a teacher suspected of having the disease. Health officials say this and other recent, highly-publicized cases in metro Atlanta are serving to raise awareness of TB.

In Georgia, roughly 500 new cases of active TB are reported every year, and half of those are in the 5-country metro Atlanta area. State TB Program Director Beverly DeVoe Payton says that's tiny compared to total population, but the recent media coverage is important because the disease is still a public health concern. She say, "Because the symptoms are so similar to other respiratory conditions - pneumonia, bronchitis, the flu - people really may not even
be aware that they had been exposed to someone with TB, and they still would not know unless they had a specific tubercular skin test.

DeVoe-Payton says TB in Georgia has decreased by 44% since the early '90s, and that over time, it has concentrated in certain subpopulations. Those are mainly the homeless, intravenous drug users, and those in correctional facilities.

Homeless to get $7 M in state aid

The State of Georgia is giving over $7 million dollars in state and federal funds to help Georgia's homeless. Officials at the Department of Community Affairs say 181 agencies throughout the state will get the funds.

The monies are to support running and development costs, and will cover a wide range of related housing support services.

Don Watt, director of the DCA's office of housing and special initiatives says the aid,

..."will fund both operations and services of emergency shelters and transitional housing facilities."

10 homeless and health care organizations in Columbus, Americus and Butler will get over 300,000 dollars of the state and federal assistance.

In Columbus, Kim Elise Jenkins of the Open Door Community House says the aid will go for homeless women:

“The money that we receive from the Department of Community Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development all go to help the case management program and the DCA money specifically goes to help us provide housing, food and supportive services for homeless women who live with us here in our transitional facility.”

Jenkins says their ultimate goal is to provide the women with sustainable income and permanent housing.

UGA & Medical College will take over Navy base

The University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia are poised to take over a Navy Supply Corps facility in Athens. This week the two schools reached an agreement with the local redevelopment authority.

The schools will take control of the base when it closes in 2011 and turn it into a medical campus. As part of the deal, UGA will pay $8 million dollars for another facility that will be used to help the homeless.

The local redevelopment authority is expected to vote on the agreement on Monday. A public hearing to unveil a site plan for the campus is scheduled July 17. For the deal to succeed, the state Legislature must fund it within the next three years.

Homeless in Columbus: getting past the overpass (Updated)

Homeless under the Second Street Bridge.
Click on images for larger view.
(Dave Bender)
Heeding -- at least temporarily -- the demands of a municipal decision to clear out, several dozen homeless residents camped out beneath Columbus's Second Street Bridge made themselves scarce by noon Monday.

Today was the deadline for the some 50 homeless men to to move out from the hobo camp, set up under the overpass and alongside some railroad tracks. Nearby businesses had called for clearing the area.

Joe Riddle, director of the city's department of of community reinvestment told GPB News that the city plans to clear out the mattresses, blankets and meager personal belongings remaining in the makeshift lodgings in coming days. He says the homeless themselves requested trash cans in order to help clean up the area.

City representatives set up a table at the site for several hours a day twice a week throughout April, and helped the homeless obtain more stable living and, for some, employment arrangement.

Representatives are to meet this week with numerous homeless support groups to coordinate efforts to comprehensively deal with the city's indigent population. Riddle says several dozen are already moving to homes and shelters, and are dealing with alcohol and substance abuse problems.

Elizabeth Alcantara, director of the Homeless Resource Network, says that raised awareness of the plight of Columbus, Phenix City, Al., and the area's some 2,000 indigent residents is itself a positive step.

"We've had some recent newspaper coverage about people sleeping under the bridge; and while many people feel that, 'you know, we're sorry to see that in the paper, and to hear that' - I was thrilled, because it brings attention.

"We think that we're not a big city - we're not New York, we're not Atlanta, and we don't have homelessness here - and we do."

One fact that both Riddle and Alcantara agree on is that Columbus's homeless problem is largely homegrown:

“For the most part, the people that we are serving are from our area,” Alcantara says.

“They're down on their luck,” Riddle says, adding, “a lot of them are from Columbus; they've had a bad situation, and they end up out on the streets.”

Sleeping rough: Mattress, Bible, crutch and
shovel. Click on images for larger view.
(Dave Bender)