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Atlanta logs dramatic turnaround in homelessness

By Jamie Henry-White

Associated Press

LAST UPDATED: 7:51 a.m. HST, Sep 29, 2013



Those like Mainor are eager to find the help.

"I just got sick and tired of living a life of drugs and alcohol," Mainor said. "I saw my friend get shot and lay in the streets and die. That's not how I want to leave this world."


"Atlanta is a really turnaround story in the last year," said Jake Maguire, communications director for the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a national group working to find permanent homes for 100,000 of the nation's most vulnerable homeless. "They have been able to make tremendous change in a short amount of time."


"Atlanta in some ways is kind of the poster child," Maguire said. "Dramatic change is actually possible in a short period of time."


Atlanta's efforts in addressing homelessness align with a federal strategy, called "Opening Doors," to end veteran and chronic homelessness by 2015. Though only a small portion of the homeless population, research shows the chronically homeless consume a disproportionate amount of public resources, including homeless shelters, hospitals, emergency rooms, jails and prisons. Chronically homeless individuals also are the most vulnerable, with nearly four to nine times higher mortally rates than the general population, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.


"This is not the guy who could get a job who just didn't want it -- that's not the population," Maguire said. "They are folks who really, truly will not be able to sustain themselves and will need to be taken care of by their fellow community members."


The VA nationally is increasingly viewing homelessness as a permanent problem -- not a temporary one.

"The change now is that we want people to get housing first, and then we surround them with services and that helps their process of recovery," said Protip Biswas, Vice President of Homelessness and Community Outreach for United Way of Greater Atlanta.

Recent analysis from Atlanta's local housing authority found that veterans permanently housed through the HUD-VASH voucher program had an average retention rate of 95 percent. It is too early to calculate the retention rate for the city's recent chronic homelessness challenge.

Many of the individuals housed through the city's recent initiatives were identified through a volunteer-driven homeless registry created in January. The registry, based on a vulnerability index that screens for critical health and social conditions, serves to identify and prioritize the city's most vulnerable citizens for housing.

As for Mainor, he has been able to overcome his alcohol and drug addictions, afford permanent housing, receive medical and psychological attention and obtain pension benefits. Building off his skills as a cook in the military, Mainor recently graduated from Atlanta Technical College's culinary arts program, where he also met his fianc?e. The two are now making plans to open a bakery and catering business.

"Instead of me trying to find some drugs and alcohol when I wake up in the morning-time, now when I wake up in the morning-time, I can think about the positive things in life," Mainor said. "It tells me that Larry is somebody now. It tells me that the last four years of trying to live a normal life is paying off."

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