The Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter was located at 477 Peachtree Street NE, at the corner of Pine Street in the SoNo subdistrict of Downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, just south of Midtown. It was officially closed on August 28, 2017, after many years of political wrangling over the site and its management. The 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2)[1] building, which is within sight of Fox Theatre and Bank of America Plaza, stretches from Peachtree Street in the front to Courtland Street in the back. It was run by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, whose executive director was Anita Beaty. The facility could house up to 700 homeless men each night,[2] although some sources say it could house up to 1000.[3]
Almost since its opening in 1997, neighbors and neighborhood organizations complained [4] about unsanitary conditions, loitering, drug sales, and violent crimes [5][6][7] in the immediate vicinity of the shelter, to a degree far more intense than occurs around other shelters in the city, blaming poor management of Peachtree-Pine as the root cause.[2] The shelter was also the site of tuberculosis outbreaks.[8] In 2014, Mayor Kasim Reed declared that "Peachtree-Pine is awful. It has rampant drug sales, and it poses a serious risk to the health of people in the City of Atlanta".[9] The Task Force, on the other hand, has filed multiple lawsuits accusing the city officials, downtown business organizations, and Emory University (which operates a hospital across from the shelter) of having conspired to dry up its funding sources and force it out of business through tortious interference, defamation and other illegal means.
The shelter's troubled relations with the surrounding community, including its long running legal battles with the City Hall and other organizations, have been covered extensively in local publications such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Creative Loafing, and Atlanta Business Chronicle. There have also been in depth reports [10] in national media.
The building itself was designed by notable Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown and was originally known as the United Motors Services Building when it opened in 1921.[11]
- ^ "Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter in foreclosure — again", Scott Henry, Creative Loafing, November 13, 2009
- ^ a b "Atlanta's largest homeless shelter loses appeal over water-bill dispute with city", Thomas Wheatley, Creative Loafing, January 16, 2013
- ^ "Judge Schwall orders the closing of Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter by Aug. 31", Saporta Report, February 3, 2012
- ^ "Community continues to be victimized by Peachtree-Pine criminals", Midtown Ponce Security Alliance "Eye on Midtown", November 2013.
- ^ "Taxi driver attacked by several men outside Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter", Hunt Archbold, "Midtown Patch", January 2013
- ^ "Man stabbed multiple times outside Peachtree-Pine shelter", Hunt Archbold, "Midtown Patch", February 2013
- ^ "18-year-old shot, killed near downtown shelter", Mike Morris, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 3, 2009
- ^ "Fulton investigating TB outbreak at three Atlanta homeless shelters", Madeleine Thompson, "Creative Loafing", May 16, 2014
- ^ "Reed: City Has Plan To Aid Homeless If Shelter's Water Is Turned Off", Michelle Wirth, WABE, Atlanta's NPR Station, September 23, 2014
- ^ "Battle of Atlanta: Fight over a Downtown Homeless Shelter Strains Some Down-Home Ties", Terry Carter, "American Bar Association Journal", May 2011
- ^ admin (2019-01-05). "United Motors Services Building". Historic Atlanta. Retrieved 2021-02-10.