EXCLUSIVE: Homeless Women May Be Evicted en Masse, in Height of Winter

Homeless may be evicted in winter

By Matthew Cardinale and Jonathan Springston, Atlanta Progressive News (January 31, 2007)

(APN) ATLANTA – Over one hundred homeless single women and women with children are facing uncertain futures on this freezing cold night, as the Gateway Overflow shelter for women prepares to abruptly close, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

"They can't put them out in this cold! That would just be unthinkable! Tomorrow is going to be one of the coldest and rainiest nights of the year," Rev. Timothy McDonald of the First Iconium Baptist Church said.

State Sen. Vincent Fort, State Rep. "Able" Mable Thomas, and Anita Beaty, Executive Director of the Task Force for the Homeless, have tentatively planned a press conference for 11am tomorrow in front of the Gateway Center [releases to be sent out by morning].

Both Beaty as well as Alan Harris, a homeless advocate, have heard from several distraught homeless women, who say that the Gateway Overflow shelter is about to close, as soon as tomorrow, they told Atlanta Progressive News.

Both Beaty and Harris, who work independently, have also heard from Gateway staff of the impending Overflow closure, they said.

"We got ten calls in an hour from women who were told to call the hotline and get on the lobby list," Beaty said. The Task Force lobby used to provide chairs for homeless women to sit in at night as a last resort, as they’re not licensed to provide beds for women, before the Overflow shelter opened. >>>Cont