Partnership helps create new beginnings for people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta

ATLANTA — 11Alive takes an inside look into a public-private partnership working around-the-clock to house and care for hundreds of people experiencing homelessness, living in downtown Atlanta tent camps.

The Atlanta Rising Project, together with Partners for HOME, is building modular apartments in a factory and then installing them on city-owned land in about nine-months; that’s cutting years off of production.

They look like the most updated high-rise apartment buildings in Atlanta. But these modular apartments are changing the lives of its residents who have experienced homelessness.

One of them is Beadie.

“That was the most exciting time in my life, my own place. It’s mine and it seemed like a dream,” Beadie said glowingly.

“Oh man! Its a feeling. It is just a feeling, I mean,  I can’t explain. It’s mine! My own refrigerator. My own bed. It’s my place!,” she added with excitement.

And Beadie is now working part-time and thanks to Atlanta Rising, Partners for HOME, and medical care, she is reconstructing her life.

“I am drug free, I don’t do that and I am making sure I  go to my doctor’s appointments,: she said. “I am getting back spiritually connected with my Father.”

The WaterWorks Atlanta Rising Project, one of two being built in the city is created with pre-assembled modular units.  At the Waterworks there are 100 residents who have experienced homelessness. Thirty of the modular units are designed specifically for people with medical needs.

A second set of 112 modular apartments will open on Cooper Street in April, with more housing scheduled. More than $200 million is being raised to fund the effort.

The non-profit Partners For HOME, already responsible in the past 10 years for housing more than 15,000 of Atlanta’s unsheltered homeless with a retention rate of 96 percent is heading up the project.

“Our goal with downtown rising is to rehouse 400 people who are unsheltered in the downtown area and end unsheltered homelessness in downtown. we are on track to hit the 400 goal by this month,” Partners for HOME Chief Executive Cathryn Vassell said.

And a driving force in raising the funds is Atlanta attorney Jack Hardin, who spearheaded development of the Gateway Center in downtown Atlanta to house and treat the unsheltered homeless.

“There is an enormous shortage of housing and that is the cause of homelessness and that shortage impacts our emergency response system because we have to get people into housing,” Hardin said.

And with an estimated 1,000 unsheltered people still on downtown Atlanta streets, Hardin admits there is still a long funding road ahead.

“Our problem is to scale up to the inflow and that;s what we are trying to do with Atlanta Rising,” he added.

Its a goal Vassell and Hardin and City Agencies are working around the clock to achieve.

For a closer look at what is being done to ease Atlanta’s unsheltered homeless population and secure permanent housing, go to Atlanta Rising’s website and Partners for HOME’s site for details.