Atlanta Proposal to Solve Homelessness

The crisis created by a lack of affordable housing and rising unhoused populations throughout many US major cities seems to be a problem that conventional means of homeless shelters, Christian programs and sober living facilities have yet to solve. As someone who has been homeless off and on since 2017, I’ve experienced a variety of homeless environments, the of which is sleeping on the streets and the best of which was in a converted senior citizens living facility. Though there are many levels in-between these two extremes, the solution I believe we need that no one is talking about is to shift our focus from homeless shelters and instead, focus on building affordable and transitional housing.

Though homelessness itself is a rather complex issue with a myriad of details that change from person to person in exploring exactly what caused them to become homeless, the simple solution is to provide a safe, and secure place for the unhoused to stay. Rather than continuing to waste money and resources on shelters, programs and case managers who aren’t actually solving the problem, what if we used those same resources to build 5 story transitional housing facilities with 500 studio apartments, per building. 3 such buildings would completely solve the issue of people living on the streets while 4 would create a surplus of housing that people in Atlanta may need in the near future. Rather than more programs, groups and meetings that aren’t working, we could just provide around the clock security and do weekly inspections to make sure everything is as it should be, then work with the city directly to offer work, health and transportation resources to the people who need them. Providing the unhoused with about 2 years of this kind of support for free would actually be able to help these people get their lives together and be able to progress into finding permanent housing of their own.

As is, with many shelters creating 6 month programs of “Jesus Loves You” ministries before they’ll even allow you to look for work so you can start earning enough money to get your own place, or they have drug policies too strict for many of the people on the streets to be able to stay their, the ineffectiveness of the city’s current strategy is astounding. In addition to this are the people who have received abuse or harassment at some of these shelters, typically because of their religion not aligning with the one being pushed by the shelter or their sexuality and/or gender identity not lining up with the Bible based foundation of many of these shelters. Being Islamic myself I’ve experienced this targeted harassment more than once and I’m most cases if you report it to the staff, they’ll either start looking for a reason to kick you out, (you’d be amazed by the number of people getting kicked out in the streets for “arguing with staff,” or they’ll just say “This is a Christian organization and if you don’t like it you can leave. Needless to say this isn’t how you help people with no resources and no where to go. Though job losses and a lack of affordable housing pay a role in the rising numbers of the unhoused, the problem staring everyone in the face is many of us never actually received real help. That’s what I’m proposing here. Real help, and real solutions, in a manner that creates permanent results. If you believe that we The people have the ability to truly help each other and create a world where housing is a human right, please consider joining and/ or supporting the Riverside Revolution.