Metro Atlanta is navigating through uncharted waters when it comes to serving the homeless and people in need of food, shelter and basic services.
“Telephone lines are swamped, and waiting times have increased,” said Milton Little, president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Atlanta. “There’s an abundance of new people calling for help. The numbers are rivaling the worst days of the COVID pandemic.”
That’s not news to Hope Atlanta, a nonprofit that’s been providing services to Georgians trying to avoid homelessness and hunger for more than 125 years.
Julio Carrillo, Hope Atlanta’s CEO since June 2022, has seen the number of calls seeking help increase from 3,000 a month earlier this year to 15,000 a month. He dreads the thought of phones ringing and not being able to serve everyone who calls.
Hope Atlanta has been spending time evaluating its services, developing a new strategic plan and making hard decisions to focus its efforts while trying to become more efficient.
It also just celebrated its 125th anniversary and completed at $10 million “Capacity Campaign for Growth,” lead by Kellie Glenn, Hope Atlanta’s chief development officer.
“When I got here, our annual operations were at $14.5 million. Now we are a little over $20 million,” Carrillo said during a recent interview with members of his leadership team. “We went from 68 staff members to 125.”
But the harder Hope Atlanta tries to marshal its resources, the mountain of need just seems to be getting larger. There’s an uptick in inflation. There’s a lack of affordable housing. And there are increasing layoffs.
“Many community partners are not in a position to serve more people,” said Carrillo, who previously worked at Families First and Big Brothers Big Sisters. “They are already maxed out. It’s paralyzing to us to not be able to serve people.”
Elizabeth Banks, Hope Atlanta’s chief operating officer for the past three years, has been collecting data and finding ways to make the organization as efficient as possible.
She takes comfort in knowing how resilient Hope Atlanta has been since its founding in 1900. It was formerly known as Traveler’s Aid of Metropolitan Atlanta until the nonprofit was rebranded in 2009.
“Looking back at Hope Atlanta being 125 years old, think of how many pivots we have needed to do,” Banks said. “We are resilient and adaptable in serving the community. We are going to figure it out.”
Little is confident that Hope Atlanta is well-positioned to weather what’s coming. But he believes the situation is getting worse by the day.
“Hope Atlanta has got a few more resources, a capable staff and better infrastructure than a number of other agencies operating in the homeless arena,” Little said. “But they are still at risk.”
Carrillo acknowledged it’s hard to predict future needs and budget for the unknown.
“When I got here, we were relying 90 percent on government funding,” Carrillo said. “Today, we’re relying on 75 percent government funding.”
That trend is likely to continue.
“A lot of what we are seeing is as a result of the dramatic shift in federal funding and federal policies,” Little said. “The situation is likely to get much more difficult for people in the coming months as the full impact of federal changes comes into view.”
One example is a shift away from the “housing first” approach, which has been an effective policy in recent years. Little is concerned that some people will be left in limbo as they’re placed in transitional housing with fewer supportive services.
“The federal government has reset its funding priorities,” Little said. “I’ve never seen as dramatic a reset of human services policy coming out of an administration.”
Little said the gap in federal funding likely will total hundreds of millions of dollars in just metro Atlanta. That amount “can’t be made up by charitable giving” and “not likely to be made up by the state of Georgia.”
All the more reason the community needs to be thankful to have organizations like Hope Atlanta, Little said.
On a recent Wednesday morning, Hope Atlanta’s facility at the corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Charles Allen Drive was bustling with people coming and going. A flagship daily offering is the Women’s Community Kitchen, which has been serving about 60 women and children a day, and it is preparing to double its capacity.
Hope Atlanta’s staff was busy serving meals to women and children in the large assembly area of the former Grace United Methodist Church. Big letters adorn the room, stating: “Grace at Work Everywhere.” A pantry of food is also available to the women and children who come to the center.
That’s just one of the ways Hope Atlanta serves the homeless.
“We have the largest troops on the ground with outreach,” Carrillo said. “We are 24-7 at the airport 365 days a year. We also have exclusivity with MARTA. And our team works with homeless encampments.”
Hope Atlanta provides “place-based” services to communities like the Melody in downtown Atlanta. The nonprofit has shifted its policy on where it places people, preferring to house them close to public transportation rather than scattered in areas only accessible by car.
Carrillo said Hope Atlanta now offers competitive salaries so that the staff can better take care of other people. “Our priority is to make sure we can take care of the people we serve,” he said.
The nonprofit has also developed contingency plans with different scenarios for anticipated decreases in federal funding.
“One of the things I love about Atlanta and the community is that I can pick up the phone, and people come to the table and provide resources,” Carrillo said. “Many people have stepped up from the community.”
Still, Carrillo keeps coming back to the 15,000 calls for help that Hope Atlanta gets each month from people seeking help.
“Where are the resources?” asked Carrillo. “My team saves lives. It’s my job to advocate for resources.”
Banks said that on an annual basis, Hope Atlanta serves about 6,500 clients – describing 1,500 of them as “high intensity.” That includes people who have behavioral or mental health issues. “Being homeless is very destabilizing,” she said.
All the more reason nonprofits need to be flexible and be innovators.
“The world is moving really fast,” Carrillo said. “We have to be sustainable. We want to solve problems in the community.”
But Little said this period will “test the resilience of metro Atlanta’s human services infrastructure. The way services are provided will have to change, and it’s unclear who will be left behind.
“We are in for some difficult days,” Little said. “We likely will end up in a world of hurt. But we’ve got to keep trying.”
