In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greg White, then-director of Recreation and Parks for the city of Decatur, began to see how the shutdown was making life even harder for people experiencing homelessness.
“I say, in America, we forgot about poor people,” White said.
With water fountains turned off in public spaces, many unhoused people had little or no access to water. White said he was able to get one fountain turned back on behind a recreation center, and it became the go-to resource for people who used it to hydrate and bathe.
White started bringing water and food to people experiencing homelessness himself, he said. And after his eight-hour workday, he dedicated the hours of 6 to 9 p.m. to checking on unhoused people and doing what he could to help.
“I was just trying to make sure people had the basics,” he said. “…hats, gloves, blankets and socks.”
White retired from the city of Decatur in 2024 after 30 years of service. He is now executive director of A Home for Everyone in DeKalb, an organization that works to help people experiencing homelessness move toward stable housing.
During a conversation on the Let’s Start Healing Podcast, he discussed the work of the organization, why the issue of homelessness matters, and how collaboration with cities, counties, community groups and faith organizations can bring about change to housing insecurity.
White said a person experiencing homelessness might spend the night in Decatur, then travel to Alpharetta or Gwinnett County during the day to access resources available in those communities.
“That’s why we’ve got to have a collaborative approach,” he said. “Nobody can solve this in a silo.”
In August, White partnered with local artists on a community engagement project for an Atlanta Regional Commission forum designed to educate and engage the DeKalb community on housing insecurity and homelessness.
The concern extends across the region. During the Atlanta Regional Commission’s regional housing forum on Sept. 2, CEO Anna Roach said data shows that by 2035, 75 percent of people earning less than $50,000 a year will not have access to housing they can afford.
A Home for Everyone in DeKalb was founded in 2017 by Rob Johnson and Shelley Fine with a vision of safe, affordable and stable housing for everyone in DeKalb County. The nonprofit provides transitional housing for men and women and also helps people moving out of homelessness cover security deposits for apartments.
For people who have been living in shelters, extended-stay hotels or even their cars, securing an apartment can be difficult, particularly when past evictions, poor credit or no credit history result in higher move-in costs. White said the organization budgets about $10,000 a month for security-deposit assistance, enough to help about eight to nine people each month.
“If we had more dollars, we could help more people to get into housing,” White said.
The organization’s work also includes advocacy. White was among several advocates for unhoused people who attended a DeKalb County Board of Commissioners meeting in August to voice opposition to a proposed ban on unauthorized camping in public spaces.
White and others wore T-shirts that read “Support Unhoused Neighbors.” A vote on the proposed ban was postponed until the end of September.
“We need to end this in this country,” White said of homelessness. “We cannot normalize this. There’s too much wealth in this country for us not to be able to figure this out.”
A Home for Everyone in DeKalb is the beneficiary organization of the fundraising effort that will take place during Let’s Start Healing’s 24-hour live episode beginning at 12 p.m. on Sept. 18.
A Home for Everyone will also host a fundraising community concert at Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 27.
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