Charitable Help for Homelessness in Atlanta

Co-authored with Christopher Strickland, MSW

One of the most interesting courses I took during my college tenure was a senior level course titled Language and Politics. In it, we examined just how crucial language can be when forming ideas in notions in the minds of constituents and citizens: framing, rhetoric, speech techniques.

As the semester pushed on, we were eventually left with the task of selecting our research projects for the final paper. I quickly gravitated towards a discussion of mental health, exploring the connection between mental illness and a variety of ways discussion around the topics is damning to people with those issues.

What stood out to me most in my research was the abundant connection between so many issues and homelessness. Homeless people, statistically, were more likely to be incarcerated, use illicit drugs, have a mental illness, or sometimes be burdened with all three.

Homelessness and Mental Health

Here in Georgia, 10,000 people are homeless on any given night. In Atlanta, the situation is even more dire, where over 3,500 people are homeless on any given night, over 75 people per 10,000 residents. Amidst the statistics and rhetoric it made me realize the urgency, and lack thereof, we needed in solving the problem.

If you’re like me, thumbing over those statistics, reading and learning about problems like these immediately make you think, but what can I do? Fortunately, the answer is pretty straight forward.

Founded in June 2018, Housing Plus Inc. seeks to end homelessness by providing case management and housing support to individuals in the community of Atlanta. With a variety of procedures and evidence based approaches, the organization has been able to garner both transitional and permanent housing for those in need, while also using case management to lend health care with comprehensive coverage. The organization also goes a step further by partnering with Alliance Employment by connecting those experiencing or at-risk homeless with job training and placement to get them in on their feet and into a position of strength.

As a testimony to their work, consider the case of one Charmon, from Waco, Texas:

Originally from Waco, Texas, Charmon, his mother, and his two sisters moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia when he was 16 years old. He enjoyed Georgia instantly, remembering how much happier his family was there because of the opportunities it afforded them. His mother was strong, a single parent who sought out prospects to improve the wellbeing of her children; Charmon always loved and admired his mother’s resolve.

One day, life would deal a devastating blow to his family’s new-found peace: he would arrive home to find his mother and his two sisters shot and killed. As a 16-year-old, he resolved to get vengeance for his family seemingly murdered in cold blood: “I left and I did what I felt was right and what I had to do.” Charmon would be arrested and sentenced to 16 years in prison for aggravated assault.

The first 7 years of his sentence “was hard, I was just strong-willed.” He took the time to find himself, diving into whatever book was available so that the situation he had found himself in didn’t overtake who he was at heart. He would “read and pray, read and pray, read and pray” to keep himself from “getting lost in there.” He channeled his mother’s ambition that he depended on and admired as a child, realizing he “had something greater to live for, so I got right with my faith…I knew one day I was gonna come home.”

Being out for a year, he states “the adjustment is hard, even having been out for a year…but I still have my ambition, my drive.” When he was released from prison after serving his full sentence, he was dropped off in Douglasville, Georgia because he had no primary address on file. He entered the adult prison system before he was legally an adult, so he began his life in Douglasville with no safety net, no family, no job prospects, but willpower passed down to him from his mother. As he puts it simply, “I was just strong-willed.” To survive, he stayed in a “dope house,” constantly keeping his eyes set toward improving his life when he could get the proper resources and supports.

His search for resources would connect him with Shafee’qur, one of our outreach specialists. Shafee’qur was able to connect Charmon with affordable permanent housing in Atlanta, where he has recently graduated from welding school and will soon work full-time as a welding technician. He remarks based on his current successes: “when people see you’re good people…people pull up and help you…”

His advice to others is to stay strong. Don’t lose yourself in your environment. Keep your values and morals strong. And stay humble. “You gotta go through things to really understand what it means and appreciate the good.”

Never shy of volunteers or donations, Housing Plus Inc can be a good push to jump start that New Year’s resolution of giving back to the community this Spring and Summer. It’s never too late to help, and with the all of the resources around us, we should make a push to help our fellow man enjoy the right to a secure, happy home like so many of us enjoy.