ATLANTA — Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Friday that the city will soon have to decide if it will “allow or disallow” homeless people to continue to live and build encampments under bridges and overpasses.
This comes just days after fire investigators blamed an out-of-control fire at a homeless encampment for severely damaging a bridge along Cheshire Bridge Road.
But, the Mayor added, such an action cannot come without giving those people alternative places to live.
“Policy decisions are going to be made around whether we allow or disallow anybody to ever go up under a bridge to live and so consider that trespassing,” Dickens said. “But we’ve got to have options for people.”
To that end, Dickens toured a new concept village under construction in Downtown Atlanta in an old parking lot on Forsyth Street made up of donated converted shipping containers and modular units.
The village, called The Melody, could house up to 40 people in individual units with private baths, social services and even a dog park.
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“We don’t want any more fires under a bridge,” Dickens said as he toured the facility. “We don’t want anyone living out on the street, so what we have to do is continue to build for these solutions.”
The Melody is an example of what Dickens calls “rapid transitional housing.”
Construction started just 60 days ago, and the $5 million project is scheduled to be completed in January.
Dickens has pledged to construct 20,000 affordable housing units in eight years. He said they’ve already built 3,000 and are in the planning phases of another 5,000.
“This is our heart saying we don’t want anyone to have to endure the elements or have to light a fire to stay warm under a bridge,” Dickens said.
A similar fire at a homeless encampment two years ago critically damaged another bridge on Cheshire Bridge Road and required 20 months and tens of millions of dollars to replace.
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