Homelessness is increasing around Georgia, including in Athens-Clarke County. The mayor and commission of Athens met on Tuesday to hear from the director of a newly formed coalition of service providers, sparking questions about who decides where people with mental illness are rehoused.
During a work session Tuesday afternoon, the mayor and commission heard a report from Michael Bien, the Executive Director of the Athens Homeless Coalition. The coalition, which formed last year, seeks to remove barriers for people facing homelessness and prevent families and individuals from entering homelessness.
Bien says that the coalition’s work is guided by people who have experienced homelessness.
“That’s something we take very seriously. I think you hear that a lot, that lived experience is a token or a check on checkbox, but it’s not, it really guides what we do.”
The Athens Homeless Coalition has hosted 22 listening sessions with people with lived experience of homelessness.
Bien faced withering criticism about community involvement from some commissioners, however. Commissioner Tiffany Taylor, an Athens native who represents the 3rd District on the city’s economically struggling Eastside, criticized one of the coalition’s partners. She said that her constituents were not consulted when a supportive housing development was established in her neighborhood by Advantage Behavior Health, a mental healthcare organization that serves the uninsured. Taylor:
“A lot of the people that Advantage serves that has severe problems to where the complex no longer wants to deal with them. They’re put into communities with families and children. It was not transparent. I feel like this property was chosen because it is a predominantly Black neighborhood.”
Bien said that participants in Advantage Behavioral Health’s supportive housing program are screened for the risk they pose to communities.
At the meeting, the mayor and commission also heard from the Housing and Community Development Department about the staff’s recommendations for doling out nearly $3 million to community organizations focused on affordable housing projects. The Commission will vote on the allocation of those funds in April and May.
