ATLANTA — The city of Atlanta is working to tackle homelessness -- as about 2,000 people sleep on the streets in the city each night.
This summer, the city announced plans to use shipping containers as a way to help bring those numbers down. This week, city officials are sharing how the plan is coming along.
In August, the city announced it planned to buy shipping containers from Georgia’s Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) to be converted into rapid housing.
It's not a new idea. Phoenix has a similar program and San Diego is about to launch one soon. Now Atlanta is putting millions of dollars into it to help make it a success.
The city invested $4 million upfront and just this week, it announced another $7.5 million will be directed toward rapid housing projects within the city.
Mayor Andre Dickens said there are 500 unhoused people just in Downtown Atlanta. His administration is working to offer those people a safe place to stay along with wrap-around services to keep them from becoming homeless in the future.
"The shipping containers that we are going to be using downtown we are trying to get those open by Christmas. That's another solution we will have to rapidly rehouse those that are homeless. We've got 40 on the way and we're going to keep building for people that are experiencing homelessness," Dickens said. "There's a continuum of care so you might be experiencing homelessness and we'll get you into safe, stable housing. Then we'll try to get you into an apartment but also with a job so workforce development so you can pay for the subsidized rent. In the end, we move you into down-payment assistance."
Dickens said he hopes that putting the shipping containers in a parking lot on Forsyth Street SW is just the beginning of his rapid housing initiative.
The biggest news about this rapid housing project is that Dickens expects the first batch of these converted shipping containers to be ready by the holiday. The mayor's office said the units could serve as temporary or permanent housing for those who need it.