Business Help Needed to Re-Locate Homeless

Homeless Population in Woods off Hospital Drive to be Re-located in a Coordinated Effort of Churches, City and County Government, United Way and Local Businesses.

The City of Douglasville is seeking community-minded businesses who will be part of the United Way and its program to remove people “from the woods” and place them in housing where they can receive support services of a transitional nature. We recognize some part of the homeless community is “living in the woods” by choice; however, for most of the people who are homeless, they have been trapped by events and circumstances from which they would like to escape. United Way has had a good measure of success with this program in other places, and it is logical to believe the approach will work in Douglasville – Douglas County.

Local churches working with the city as a faith-based group raised $10,000 a few weeks ago, and the local governments have committed another $10,000. These groups are now asking for local business to join them in raising the last $10,000 needed to receive a $30,000 matching grant from United Way. With $60,000, United Way can provide housing for 48 adults. That would make a huge impact toward removing most of the problem and the tragedy of homelessness from our community.

Charlie Branson and staff from the United Way are working to identify which individuals will be selected for the housing program. Also, they are letting the people “living in the woods” know that within a few weeks, the City government will exercise the permission it has received from property owners to demolish whatever structures, etc., the homeless currently are using and will enforce “no trespassing” on these properties.

As Mayor Persons recently said: “I believe our City government” — and I think we could say our community — “must look at the homelessness situation from two perspectives. We need to have compassion for those who find themselves in such dire straits that they are panhandling and living in the woods. And we need to be concerned about our local businesses and their customers who can find themselves confronting situations just outside a store entrance or at their car windows while in line for fast food restaurant service.”

If you would like to contribute to this initiative or have additional questions, please contact City Manager Bill Osborne at osborneb@ci.douglasville.ga.us.