On a bitterly cold morning in January, Hope Atlanta’s outreach team encountered two unhoused neighbors who had spent the night outside trying to survive the freezing temperatures. Both wanted the same thing: to get somewhere warm, safe, and connected to support. However, one of them used a wheelchair, and our outreach van could not accommodate him.
What should have been a straightforward outreach transport became a six-hour effort. Our team searched for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, made calls, coordinated with partners, and ultimately relied on a direct connection with MARTA to help transport this neighbor to safety. But the fact still remained that after a night outdoors in dangerous weather, no one should have to wait hours longer simply because the system is not equipped to move them.
That morning underscored a major gap in Atlanta’s homelessness response that we simply can’t ignore. For people experiencing homelessness who also live with mobility limitations or disabilities, the path to housing, healthcare, and stability is often blocked by transportation barriers that most systems were not designed to solve. Every hour lost to that gap is an hour more someone spends outside, in danger, waiting.
The Barrier We Don’t Discuss Enough
Barriers in homelessness are often described in terms of access to affordable housing, employment, and healthcare – which are true. But for an unhoused person who uses a wheelchair, walker, cane, or has another mobility limitation, access is also literal. It’s about their ability to be transported to safe spaces and proper care resources without being improvised around, or left waiting while staff try to find another option.
When mobility barriers are omitted, a person’s disability becomes the reason they remain outside longer, lose a shelter opportunity, or stay disconnected from services. Thus, creating a subsector of underserved individuals in an already underserved and vulnerable population.
Hope Atlanta kept a wheelchair-accessible van on our wish list for more than a year because our teams could see the need growing in real time. We knew it was only a matter of time before the gap in our capacity directly affected a potential client. In January, it did.
A Donor’s Gift, A Bridge to Access
After hearing this story, a valued partner in our work, The Schoen Foundation, generously gifted Hope Atlanta a wheelchair-accessible van dedicated to serving unhoused neighbors with mobility limitations and disabilities. This gift is more than a vehicle. It is proof that one donor’s compassion can remove a barrier and create a bridge for our vulnerable neighbors to access the care they urgently needed.
“When our friends at Hope Atlanta shared the gap in access and the immediate impact it would make, we felt compelled to help. We’re grateful to support not just their organization but the many people who will have greater access to services because of this wheelchair-accessible van” stated Kelsey Sutton, Program Officer and Trustee.
With this van, our outreach teams can safely transport people to shelters, medical appointments, and other essential services. We can remove one of the most practical but consequential barriers between an unhoused neighbor and the help they are ready to accept.
“No one should be left without help because of a disability. Every day, we meet people who have incredible strength but face barriers most of us never have to think about. This wheelchair-accessible van allows us to reach them with dignity, compassion, and the reminder that they matter and are not forgotten” shares Elizabeth Banks, Chief Operating Officer at Hope Atlanta.
Already, the van has helped our team transport and connect wheelchair-using individuals experiencing homelessness to shelter services and go to appointments. It has strengthened our ability to engage people in high-traffic areas, during large-scale events, such as the World Cup, and in moments when timing matters. Most importantly, it has shown what philanthropy can do at its best – turn a barrier into a bridge and generosity into immediate, life-changing access.
Why This Matters to Atlanta
Hope Atlanta is Georgia’s longest-standing nonprofit committed to preventing and ending homelessness, and our work is built on meeting people where they are through street outreach, housing solutions, case management, behavioral health, and wraparound services. But meeting people where they are must also mean being able to move with them safely when they are ready for the next step.
To our knowledge, Hope Atlanta is now the only homelessness agency in Atlanta with a wheelchair-accessible van dedicated to outreach and service connection. Hope Atlanta is grateful to The Schoen Foundation who made this van possible. They did more than meet a logistical need. They helped close a gap. They reminded us that good-hearted people can change systems when they see a barrier and choose to remove it.
To learn more about how you can support our unhoused neighbors, click here.
This is sponsored content.
