50 –bed facility to offer services for employment and permanent housing assistance, childcare and healthcare services

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners today, December 7, 2011, approved a 150-bed assessment facility to help homeless mothers and their children to break the cycle of homelessness.  Springdale Place, which is located at 2836 Springdale Road, will operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week with an assessment center and transitional housing program. Springdale Place does not fit the traditional description of a homeless shelter.  Instead, the Housing and Human Services Department, along with community partners, will provide comprehensive services designed to help women find self-sufficiency.

Springdale Place will include a childcare facility, a WIC office, Workforce Development programs, and a medical exam room and health consultation area. The facility will have a 125-bed assessment center where women and children can stay up to 120 calendar days and a 25-bed transitional component where they can stay up to 7 months.

Specific Workforce Development programs will include life skills training and educational help to aid homeless mothers in gaining and maintaining stable employment.  Training will include time management, problem solving, teamwork, effective communications, organization and conflict resolution, which are needed to achieve long term success in the workplace.

Funds for Springdale place will come from $1.3 million in re-programmed funds. Sixty-seven percent will come from grant funds and the other 37% from general funds. The facility is already owned by Fulton County and was once used to house children in the custody of the state.   The facility will require only minor repairs before opening.  Community partners include United Way, the Gateway Center, WIC, Fulton County Health and Wellness and the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.  The County will continue to seek additional community partners.

For more information, call Leonard Westmoreland at 404-613-7944.

Additional Springdale Place Facts

•  Sits on 2.15 acres of land with fencing and landscaping suited for residents

•  Onsite Playground

•  Each floor has sufficient space for communal activities and programs

•  Service focus on relearning or developing life skills which are essential for securing stable employment and independent living

•  Life skills training to include budgeting, smart shopping, bill paying, balancing a checkbook

Prevalence of Homeless Families

Source:  Fulton County Housing and Human Services Department and the Tri-Jurisdictional Collaborative Continuum of Care Homeless Census

•  A point-in-time count conducted on January 25, 2011 in Atlanta, Fulton County and Dekalb County (termed the Tri-Jurisdictional/Tri-J area) identified 6,838 homeless individuals in emergency or transitional housing shelters or sleeping on the streets.*

•  The majority of homeless persons counted were located in Fulton County (92%), followed by Dekalb County (8%),  Children (10%) and single mothers (5%) were the third and fourth demographic groups represented in the total population

•  As shown below, nearly 350 families (comprised of at least one parent and a child) were identified on the night of the count; family members made up 16% of the total homeless population

 Homeless Families and Family Members by Sleeping Location

• Homeless families identified were typically headed by single mothers.  Only three of all homeless families, regardless of where sheltered, were headed by two parents and none was headed by a male parent.  The majority of both unsheltered (93%) and sheltered families (94%) were headed by single mothers.

* The homeless census represents a point in time count of individuals who were actually homeless at the time of the count; there are likely many more individuals who are at imminent risk of homelessness due to unstable housing and the numerous other risk factors that influence it.