Without any public input, the Atlanta City Council has approved legislation that discourages the city from operating emergency warming centers near schools. As temperatures drop, the measure could sharply restrict where the city can provide unhoused people lifesaving refuge from the cold.
Authored by District 10 City Councilmember Andrea Boone, the Dec. 2 resolution asks the city not to operate any emergency warming centers “within 1,000 feet of any public, private, or parochial school.” The council can’t actually dictate where the city locates emergency warming centers, since they don’t require a special use permit, so it’s only a resolution, not a law.
That said, one of the city’s two primary warming centers, the Old Adamsville Recreation Center, is located close to the Frederick Douglass 9th Grade STEAM Academy in Boone’s Westside District. She said the city plans to relocate that warming center, but she’s not yet sure where. Likewise, Old Fourth Ward’s Central Park Recreation Center neighbors the Kindezi School, but they’re just over 1,000 feet apart.
The city opened warming centers at both rec centers as recently as Dec. 5, but it’s unclear for how much longer the Adamsville site could be operational.
Boone told Atlanta Civic Circle that some of her Westside constituents want to shield schoolchildren from people living on the streets, whom they fear could be drug addicts, alcoholics, or undergoing mental health challenges.
“I’m doing the best thing I can to protect both homeless men and women and our children that go to school,” Boone said.
But children are just as susceptible as adults to becoming homeless. Nearly 12,000 metro Atlanta public school students are unhoused — and the city’s warming centers are open to minors.
What’s more, the councilmember acknowledged she has never heard of nor witnessed any unhoused people endangering kids. “I can only speak to the concerns of the parents and the residents,” Boone said. “I don’t think it would be fair for me to cast a negative light on that population without being able to give you specifics.”
Across the country, homeless shelters frequently face opposition from local communities. But unlike homeless shelters, which are open daily, emergency warming centers open only when temperatures reach dangerous lows — 40 degrees or lower for the city of Atlanta.
The Atlanta Police Department does not have any crime data to suggest that unhoused people pose any particular threat to children — or that people experiencing homelessness are inherently more dangerous than any other demographic — a spokesperson told Atlanta Civic Circle.
Local pushback
The city council’s move to discourage the city from using rec centers near schools as emergency warming spots drew fierce criticism from some local housing advocates.
“I find it reprehensible to paint unhoused people as a threat to schoolchildren and ban warming shelters from close proximity to schools,” Housing Justice League organizing director Monica Johnson said in an email. “The whole need for warming centers stems from our ever-intensifying housing crisis that makes it so that ever-increasing numbers of people face homelessness and [housing] instability.”
District 4 City Councilmember Jason Dozier was the lone councilmember to vote against Boone’s proposal, because he wants to provide warming centers at city-run recreation centers in his southwest Atlanta district, as needed — and three are located close to schools.
Boone’s resolution will make it more difficult to utilize Vicars Community Center, James Orange Recreation Center, and C.A. Scott Recreation Center to protect people experiencing homelessness from the cold, he said.
“This idea of preventing these facilities from being opened near schools didn’t really sit right with me,” Dozier told Atlanta Civic Circle. “We want to make sure we’re investing in these places so they can be used for emergency services, even if they’re not used today — whether there’s a heat wave or a deep freeze or some other emergency need.”
Wanda Sutton, who spent around three years living under a downtown bridge, said city warming centers often spared her from the ruthless winter elements. Sutton, who moved into The Melody permanent supportive housing complex last winter, said she doesn’t understand why the city council would pass legislation to restrict unhoused people’s access to that kind of help.
What’s more, warming centers are mostly open just at night, while schools are open only in the daytime, Sutton added. “We aren’t really around the kids that much, because of the hours,” she said, adding that the children she encountered at the emergency facilities were there with their parents seeking warmth.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Sutton said.
Johnson, the housing advocate, echoed Sutton’s frustration. “If we don’t want children to see people in crisis, we should address the root causes of the crisis by building deeply affordable housing and breaking the hold that corporate landlords have over our rent prices,” she said.
“We also know schools are often close to many other community resources, so by pushing homeless people away, we also worsen their chances of retaining any supportive services,” Johnson said.
The link to the resolution is broken. Got a new one?