Thursday, February 2, 2012
Courts Task Force for Homeless court hearing on Friday…finally
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 6:27 PM
And yet I was told just minutes ago by one of the attorneys involved that the long-anticipated and, one can only hope, final, hearing will, indeed, take place tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Fulton County Superior Court. Get there early, as the room may already be Occupied.
For those who haven't followed the tortuous progress of this case, here's the briefest of recaps: In May 2010, a newly formed nonprofit called Ichthus Community Trust bought two outstanding liens totaling $900,000 for the ginormous shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine. Ichthus then foreclosed, prompting a lawsuit by the Metro Task Force for the Homeless, which has operated the shelter since 1997. The suit also named Central Atlanta Progress as a defendant, claiming it had conspired with city officials and other groups to illegally wrest the property away from the Task Force. The Task Force also filed suit in federal court against the city, making many of the same claims, but the case was tossed out this past September.
Even though — or more likely because — things don't seem to be going their way, the Task Force lawyers have spent the past month deposing everybody in sight, including representatives of Ichthus, the city-owned Gateway homeless center, the United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness and scads of others. We'll see how that works out for them.
Oh, did I mention that the Task Force owes about $300,000 in overdue water bills or that it hasn't paid rent to its new landlords? I've also been told it hasn't paid its gas or electric bills in recent months, but I guess such worldly concerns don't matter when you've got God on your side.
Or do they? Not only did Task Force principals Anita and Jim Beaty long ago wear out the patience of the surrounding neighborhood, the local business community, other social service providers, and the judge hearing their case(!), but they've also been badmouthed from inside the religious community.
In a sermon given a year ago, Rev. Geoffrey Hoare, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, located a few blocks from Peachtree-Pine, described the place thusly:
The shelter is operated by something called the Task Force for the Homeless. They haven’t paid their bills recently. Conditions inside by all accounts are quite squalid. The building’s new owners want to evict not the four or five hundred homeless people who stay there, but the management. They want to put in a group who will help the residents move off the streets and into safe and secure and more stable homes.
The rev is right; that about sums things up. We should get some closure tomorrow, tomorrow…
BTW, as a bonus, the Beatys have been posting nightly head counts for the homeless staying at the shelter, something they've never done before. While we'd like to see an independent audit, the reported numbers are still interesting:
• Jan. 28 — 521 men and 2 women
• Jan. 27 — 554 men and 3 women
• Jan. 26 — 557 men, 5 women and 2 children
• Jan. 25 — 651 men, 4 women with 2 children
• Jan. 24 — 632 men and 7 women
Related Stories
-
Peachtree-Pine to be free at last 42
Homeless, city benefit from Task Force's ouster
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
scott, your glee at a possible adverse judgement against the Task Force makes you a really bad reporter. maybe that is beside the point and outside the scope of CL's mission.
it is true a judge ruled that even though there are many entities that owe more to the city in water bills than the task force, the city can decide who must pay up and when. it can even cut off the funding of an organization and then demand payment.
it is true that the task force has not been paying rent. if you were a reporter you would know this is because of the judge's decision at one of the early hearings in this case.
it is true that many people are being deposed. evidently many people are involved. if you were a reporter you would be able to see emails entered into the record where these various parties explicitly talk about cutting off the task force's private and public funding, and then setting up a front organization to foreclose, and divvy up the money from the sale of the building. actually you would not even have to be a reporter, you could just read newspapers, like the student newspaper at Emory:
http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=30420&mid=52
the above article is about the suit against emory healthcare, but the exhibits have also been entered into the case up today in atlanta. because you will never see it here, i will helpfully post a relevant excerpt:
"In “Exhibit 2” of the recently released email correspondences — which were provided by Emory Healthcare — Albert Blackwelder, chief operating officer (COO) of Emory’s Wesley Woods Center, wrote in a 2007 email to four top executives at Emory Healthcare that he and two other individuals had previously spoken with Dan Cathy regarding Peachtree Pine Shelter. Cathy was at the time one of the Task Force’s largest private donors, according to Steffen.
The email from Blackwelder states, “[We] went to talk with Dan Cathy yesterday about our concerns with the operation of this shelter and the disservice they provide the community both neighbors and the hom[e]less themselves. Dan Cathy has given money to the shelter and even volunteers there including staying overnight there. We hopefully made an impression that there is another side to this operation that he might not be aware of ... The effort is to both shut off public funding to the shelter and to try and impact private funding as well, hence the vis[i]t to Dan Cathy.”
Blackwelder denied to personally comment on the matter.
The next three exhibits in the newly released documents are from 2009.
According to Steffen, the “conspiracy had taken a new turn” at that time because the parties involved were attempting to not solely cut off funding but also to “drive us into default and obtain the property at Peachtree Pine.
“What we are seeing in the next three exhibits is the making of a conspiracy to acquire these notes, put the Task Force in default and foreclose on the building,” Steffen wrote. “And Emory is right in the middle of this conspiracy.”
When reached by email, Peterson denied personal comment.
In “Exhibit 20,” A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. wrote that he was “trying to pull together a brief meeting to discuss the future of certain property on Peachtree Street.” The email was addressed to Dane Peterson, COO of Emory University Hospital Midtown, among others.
In an email from Robinson to Peterson as part of “Exhibit 21,” Robinson states that Atlanta investor Manny Fialkow was willing to “foreclose and kick them [Peachtree] out,” but notes that he is entitled to a “discount.”
Peterson responded in an email to Robinson that Fiakow could purchase the notes for the full $900,000 after which Emory would reimburse him $100,000."
you can only believe rev. hoare's comments if you have never been in peachtree pine. it is underfunded to be sure, thanks to many of your friends, but they offer many services to people who would otherwise get nothing, and get people jobs and housing constantly. why do you complain about overcrowding at PtP and at the same time doubt their numbers?
like
dislike
Yea Bastard, the current management is great. They don't allow prostitution, drug use or voyeuristic defecation. They make people go outside to do those things, where the tourists can see. While I understand that elderly homeless men need a place to do it doggy-style and poop on the sidewalk, I don't think that stretch of Courtland is it. While the half dozen or so well dressed young men that are always present on said block with large amounts of cash in hand are certainly there to offer jobs to those in need, I'm not sure thats the best place for them either.
In other words- I sat at the light at Courtland and Pine at about 8:30 last Monday night and saw a guy sh*tting on the sidewalk, two dudes f*cking and uncountable hand to hand crack transactions. Sure there's lots of people to blame, but if the shelter wasn't there, I guarantee I wouldn't have had to witness these wonderful acts.
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
Vernon Jones wants to return to the Gold Dome and other interesting qualification tidbits 1
Qualifying period ends, dust settles, campaigns begin
-
Suspects in Pittsburgh gay bashing slated to go to trial Tuesday
The men accused of beating Brandon White in Southwest Atlanta already headed to court
-
Film Clips: Men In Black 3
Men in black are back, Chernobyl's tourism industry is booming, and music festival romance all this weekend 'at the movies.'
- More »
More by Author
-
Changing how we drink 10
Happy hour and distance requirements are on the table in booze code rewrite
-
Gwinnett is great — for gambling, sez developer 7
$1B Casino proposed for Norcross, no Indians required
- More »
