Category: Built Environment Analysis Posted on April 8, 2017Homelessness Vs. the City of Atlanta: Woodruff Park Homelessness Vs. the City of Atlanta: Woodruff Park Introduction: Homelessness. According to google homeless means “of a person without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets”.  Many homeless people start out with jobs and stable housing but then outside factors, such as social and economic, intervene. These factors typically cause a rapid change in their living situation. It typically happens at such a rate at which the person could not find other suitable living or income. Many times it is as fast as having a home one day and not the next or within hours. Homelessness is usually driven by two large factors that dictate a person’s living situation. Those are poverty and the lack of affordable housing. According to the National coalition for the homeless in 2004, 37 million people were living in poverty in the United States. Usually, people living in poverty or that are homeless live paycheck to paycheck and often are not able to pay the cost of having a bank account.   Homelessness today is different than any other time in the United states history. Typically, today not many people stay with one employer until retirement. Decades ago most people worked for the same company for years. Usually, until they could not work anymore due to old age. Today, on the other hand, people get laid off and have to deal with the outsourcing of their jobs to countries like china or Thailand due to their low pay wages. Not only are many jobs being outsourced by the full-time jobs are turning into part-time jobs. This means that about 25% of people that work part-time live in poverty due to the fact that these people can work more hours than they are usually given. Even with that most part-time jobs are given to young teenagers due to the fact that they are more obedient than adults. In 2007, the first minimum wage increase occurred in more than a decade. The minimum wage in 2007 was $5.15 and it was increased to $7.25 an hour. Woodruff Park statue: Atlanta From the Ashes, Downtown Atlanta It is very difficult for people that have become homeless to get back up on their feet. They struggle with many different obstacles in their path. Many homeless people have jobs but cannot make the rent in one month in Atlanta. In Atlanta, the average monthly rent for a 480 sqft studio in the suburbs is around $800. If a homeless person finds a full-time job for minimum wage and works 40 hours a week they will only make 1,160 dollars a month. The $800 does not include the utility bills and the furniture one would need to buy for the studio. For those with little experience and opportunities, it’s very hard to meet this requirement. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless 44% of homeless people who do have jobs cannot escape homelessness. The first step is housing which is hard when someone who is homeless can barely find a job that supports them.   Georgia is ranked seventh in the U.S for the highest number of homeless people. Fulton County has the most homeless people with nearly 6,000. The efforts that the City has put towards helping the homeless does little. The homeless people have already enough obstacles from the economy to go over but now they have the city of Atlanta that is also putting obstacles in their way.     Homelessness in Downtown Atlanta              Homelessness in downtown Atlanta has declined over the years according to Georgia’s 2015 Report on Homelessness. It is illustrated in the picture above that from 2011 to 2015 the homeless population had drastically decreased from 19,876 to 13,790 people. What the chart does not take into account are the hundreds of homeless people that move away looking for better jobs in other cities. Even for a person who is not homeless many times, it is hard to find a job but for a homeless person, it’s much harder due to the fact that some homeless people might not have the experience needed to get a job that will cover their rent for that month or the food that they will eat. Another thing that might drive the homeless is the fact that Atlanta’s Low-income housing does not appeal so much to homeless people who are working on minimum wage. On the affordable housing website of Georgia, the lowest price for housing was $700 a month. This does not include paying for the monthly utilities of the apartment.  Many homeless people are moved to other cities because of the fact that many shelters in downtown Atlanta are overcrowded.   The Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter   Not only is Atlanta not building more shelters they are turning old shelters into other things. In August of 2016, the Atlanta city council voted to authorize the conversion of a homeless shelter into a police and fire facility even though the audience of the council supported the stay of the shelter. This particular issue is in favor of the Atlanta police department which would eventually use the warehouse as a SWAT team location. The APD would like to “relieve some of the burden on a nearby station that services the highest number of calls in the city” said a member of the department. The fact of the matter is that Atlanta has a low amount of homeless shelters and subsidized sizing in the area already. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has also voiced his opinion about wanting to close down this homeless shelter as well and other state officials. His main argument for wanting to shut down the historic and important building is closely tied with its links to tuberculosis. “Laid out how tuberculosis cases, not in Georgia, but across America, are being traced back to Peachtree and Pine.”, Reed states that he has met with the CDC and has spoken to them about the things that can be done in order to safely proceed with this building. On the other hand, Anity Beaty the executive director for the Atlanta metro task force states that the shelter is compliant with the CDC protocol for treatment, spotting, and avoiding tuberculosis. Instead of the city of Atlanta taking this shelter and turning it around and giving the homeless people hope they are deciding to turn it into another government building. What does this mean for the homeless people? Most likely these homeless people that are kicked out of the building will end up going to the other overcrowded homeless shelters in the area. Though there are many homeless shelters in Atlanta not all of them will let you sleep there overnight like this one did. Homeless People in Woodruff Park   Woodruff park is located in the heart of Downtown Atlanta, Georgia between Peachtree Street NE and Park place NE. The park had a green area, two fountains, a kids playground in two areas of the park.  Robert Winship Woodruff was the president of The Coca-Cola Company from 1923 up until 1954. He ended up buying that area which is now known as Woodruff park and donating it to the city of Atlanta in 1971. Woodruff Park underwent a couple of cosmetic changes over the decades to become what it is today.               Woodruff Park is a place for the homeless community in the area to come together. Many times when one walks through Woodruff Park it is hard not to notice the homeless people sitting and conversing with one another. Most often than not, many people cannot notice the problems with this park and the extremities the City of Atlanta has gone to in order to prevent the homeless from sleeping there or spending too much time there. The city of Atlanta has put up metal barricades that you would see at concerts or events to keep the homeless in a certain area or they home put up things that are not as obvious as this. One thing that might not be as noticeable as the barricades, is the fact that every single flower pot on the outer sides of the grassland part of the park is screwed down into the edge so that it could not be moved. The flower pots that are screwed down act as an Anti-homeless in order to prevent the homeless from sleeping or laying down on the edges. From the picture presented on the left, you can see that the man can barely fit between the two flower pots. Most of the time the homeless people that do try to sit down end up throwing their things on the dirty pavement which is sometimes flooded due to underground sources.  This picture shows a subtle way that the city of Atlanta tries to remove the homeless. Just like the saying “out of sight, out of mind”. This is not the only part of the park that prohibits or restrains homeless people from laying down or even getting comfortable. In the picture to the right, it shows the outer side of the park that has benches. Clearly, the benches show the handle that is meticulously placed in the middle which makes it impossible for someone to lay down. Conclusion Even though the stage of Georgia is experiencing a decline in a number of homeless people they are harboring they are not welcoming them.

Woodruff Park is a place for the homeless community in the area to come together.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has also voiced his opinion about wanting to close down this homeless shelter as well and other state officials. His main argument for wanting to shut down the historic and important building is closely tied with its links to tuberculosis. “

This particular issue is in favor of the Atlanta police department which would eventually use the warehouse as a SWAT team location. The A

does not take into account are the hundreds of homeless people that move away looking for better jobs in other cities.

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they have the city of Atlanta that is also putting obstacles in their way.  

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They struggle with many different obstacles in their path

Today, on the other hand, people get laid off and have to deal with the outsourcing of their jobs to countries like china or Thailand due to their low pay wages

Homelessness today is different than any other time in the United states history

2004, 37 million people were living in poverty in the United States. Us

Homelessness is usually driven by two large factors that dictate a person’s living situation. Those are poverty and the lack of affordable housing.

Many homeless people have jobs but cannot make the rent in one month in Atlanta.

In 2007, the first minimum wage increase occurred in more than a decade. The minimum wage in 2007 was $5.15 and it was increased to $7.25 an hour.

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