By Paula Day

“There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven…A time for knocking down, a time for building.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,3

Five Atlanta church congregations are pooling their efforts to do something permanent about homelessness in Atlanta.

Members of Christ the king Cathedral parish, together with the Episcopal congregations of St. Philip, St. Martin of the Field and Church of the Atonement and Northside United Methodist Church, have formed EACH, Ecumenical Atlanta Churches for the Homeless, a non-profit organization.

EACH has joined with the South Atlanta Land Trust (SALT) to provide both transitional and permanent housing for the homeless in one of Atlanta’s oldest residential areas. To date EACH has renovated one small house and is finishing renovation of a two-story duplex.

According to Danny Murray, spokesperson for Christ the King’s EACH involvement, the group’s objective is to “actively help the homeless is an ecumenical fashion.” Barbara King-Rogers, SALT spokesperson, emphasizes the permanent nature of the effort.

“Some businesses give tens of thousands of dollars to improve situations in the shelter. How do you improve a stable?"she asks. Helen Moore, who represents the Church of the Atonement on the board of EACH, realizes the effort will affect the lives of fewer people, but believes the effects will be long-lasting because “the children will not grow up on the streets.”

The houses and land belong to SALT, an innovative program in South Atlanta, designed to redevelop the neighborhood and keep it residential. SALT’s program has two facets. One is buying vacant, deteriorating houses in the neighborhood, renovating them and then selling them to low-income families at both a reasonable price and reasonable interest rate. The other facet provides transitional housing, where a homeless family can “get back on its feet.” At the present time EACH volunteers are helping renovate a house on Jonesboro Road for use as a transitional home.

The original South Atlanta community in which the houses are located is approximately one square mile in area, bounded by Jonesboro Road, Termin Avenue and Capitol Avenue. The area is just east of the I 75-85 expressway off the University Avenue exit.

About a year ago as a group the five churches began exploring ways to help the homeless. They were impressed with SALT’s approach. In January EACH volunteers began work on their first house. The volunteers spend Saturdays gutting the houses and then renovating them from the studs (two by four frames). After renovation, a family now staying in a shelter or living in an automobile will live, rent-free in the transitional house. Following a plan of counseling, guidance and support developed by SALT, the family will be helped to a more stable existence and permanent residence.

“Our intention is to see a homeless family completely rehabilitated and on its own,” said Gertrude Moseley, liaison between EACH and SALT, and members of the Northside United Methodist congregation. “Our main thrust is to get the women and children out of shelters and families back together.”

Once a family is living in the house, EACH will work with it to identify and meet its individual needs, such as child care, financial counseling or job training. Under a contract with EACH, the family will agree to save one third of its earnings to pay for permanent housing. When the family is able to live independently, EACH will help provide a permanent house. Funds are now in place to hire a coordinator to work with the families, according to Mrs. Moseley. As in the SALT program, EACH will pay taxes, insurance and utility bills during the first phase of the family’s transition. Money for this will come from contributions by the five congregations and a revolving loan from SALT.

In phase two the family will begin to pay a portion of the rent, gradually increasing its payment. The goal is for a family to move back into the rental market or to buy a home after 24 months. Refurbished homes will be available for purchase.

SALT retains ownership of the land. SALT also has the first option to repurchase homes if a family decides to sell. In this way, according to Mrs. Barbara King-Rogers, the houses are kept on the market for low-income families. The sellers receive equity for improvements they may make in the house or property.

EACH has completed renovation of a one-story, one-family dwelling and is working on a two-story duplex which will be a transitional home for two families.

Most of the houses built in the area are from the early 1900s. According to Mrs. King-Rogers, the studs and foundations are still solid. Marks Construction Company holds the contract for the renovations. The supplemental labor of EACH volunteers is supervised on Saturdays by Lynn Marks, the 26-year-old owner of the company, or by a company representative.

Volunteers’ skills vary. Christ the King parishioner Anne Pitra spends her weekdays working at a desk in the archdiocesan Finance Office. She welcomes the physical labor on Saturday even though shoveling debris into wheelbarrows for carting away leaves her stiff the rest of the week. Diana Coty, also a Christ the King parish is a civil engineer who has done renovation work and is proficient with electrical wiring and carpentry. Another Christ the King parishioner, Mary Ellen Brantly, dons goggles and surgical mask and staples insulation to the interior frame.

Danny Murray expressed amazement at the response to the request for volunteers. “We needed 15 to 20 people. Seventy signed up. They were so enthusiastic. We had two extremely cold days in February, but people showed up.” Helen Moore observed, “It’s a strange thing to have to turn away volunteers.”

The South Atlanta community area is historic – one of the original Atlanta neighborhoods. Clark College, founded in 1869 and Gammon Seminary, founded in 1883, were located there. College and seminary professors and administrators were stable residents of the neighborhood. When Clark moved to West End in 1941 and Gammon in 1959, South Atlanta lost not only many educated and financially solid residents, but also its “atmosphere,” according to Mrs. King-Rogers.

In the fall of 1953, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development completed Carver Homes, a large, low-income housing project on South Atlanta’s southern boundary. On the north side of the community, trucking firms, a tire company and chemical factories encroached on the residential area.

To stem this erosion of a neighborhood of one-family dwellings and to protect their community from dying, residents formed the South Atlanta Civic League in the early 1950s. From the League’s concern about increased criminal activity, a growing drug problems, and absentee land ownership, came to decision to form a land trust.

The South Atlanta Land Trust was incorporated as a non-profit organization in the early 1980s for the specific purpose of buying land to safeguard the community – land bought for the community, in the community name and belonging to the community. SALT first purchased vacant property along Jonesboro Road to secure the community’s boundaries and then bought strategically located property within the South Atlanta community. Houses relocated from the airport area were put on some of the property; houses already on the land were renovated. SALT plans eventually to have 50 to 55 low-income housing units available, both homes and apartments.

In addition to the help of EACH volunteers, SALT has received considerable financial aid from the Catholic Church, according to the Rev. Craig Taylor, a United Methodist minister, “loaned” to SALT to get its program started and keep it going. Last year the Church’s Campaign for Human Development gave a $25,000 grant to the project, one that Taylor hopes will be renewed. The McCauley Institute has given $12,000 and through the efforts of Sister Kathleen Tomlin, C.S.J., the Sisters of St. Joseph have loaned SALT $50,000.

This uniting of financial and physical resources in a cooperative, ecumenical effort is one practical attempt by concerned area churches to alleviate homelessness in Atlanta.