Group gets $950K for homeless shelters

Gwinnett officials allocated nearly $1 million on Tuesday to the organization that hopes to bring a pair of homeless shelters to the county.

The $950,000 awarded by county commissioners will go to the new HomeFirst Gwin- nett initiative. The taxpayer dollars will be used to help HomeFirst reach a number of goals — including open- ing a new shelter for women and children near Norcross and another at a still-unde- termined location.

The move marked a big step for a county govern- ment that has historically collected and distributed federal grant money to nonprofits that serve the needy but has rarely played a direct role. In 1997, the County Commission adopted a formal resolution declaring that providing ser- vices to the poor wasn’t its responsibility.

And while taxpayer dollars are being used to contribute to the initiative, Gwinnett com- mission Chairwoman Char- lotte Nash balked when asked if the county was getting into “the shelter business.”

“When dealing with social issues, our most common approach is to contract with non-profit organizations rather than trying to provide such ser- vices directly,” she wrote in an email. “Not only are non-prof- its typically more nimble in operations than local government, but they are more successful in raising funds from the private sector.”

Gwinnett has one of the larg- est homeless populations in metro Atlanta and has lacked an emergency shelter since September, when the 11-bed SaltLight Center run by a local nonprofit closed. HomeFirst Gwinnett was created last summer and tasked with develop- ing a more effective and effi- cient system for helping those in need of housing assistance.

The plan that has emerged includes establishing a “coor- dinated entry system,” which will help those in need better navigate the services available in the county. Multiple assess- ment centers would be built as central locations for that assistance to be provided — and include on-site shelters to provide immediate assistance to those awaiting lon- ger-term help.

HomeFirst director Matt Elder said earlier this month that the group has already signed a rental lease for its first such center, which will oper- ate at the former John Wesley United Methodist Church at 5320 Jimmy Carter Boulevard.

Elder said he hopes the facility — which will offer 20 shel- ter beds to women and chil- dren — will be up and running by June. The goal is to have a second assessment center and shelter operational by year’s end. Neither a specific location nor a general geography has been identified for the sec- ond facility, Elder said.

“Our focus is on the system of service delivery, not the delivery of services,” Elder told county commissioners at a Feb. 5 briefing. “... What we’re trying to do is create an easier, more efficient system.”

In addition to the creation of assessment centers and shel- ters, the $950,000 general fund dollars that the county allocated Tuesday will cover things like the creation of an emergency housing assistance pool and a homelessness diversion program.

The general fund dollars that the county allocated will go to the United Way, which currently administers the HomeFirst program. But a new nonprofit group may ultimately be formed to run the coordinate entry system and its related programs, offi- cials said.

HomeFirst has also received donations from corporations like Primerica and is actively raising its own funds. To date it has raised more than $420,000, in addition to pledged county funds.

Elder thanked the commission Tuesday afternoon and said its support as a founding partner of HomeFirst Gwinnett made its progress possible.

“Over the last seven months we have worked tirelessly alongside our community partners to develop plans and concepts that today can now become a reality,” Elder wrote in an email. “This award will not only allow us to build out the facilities and system components that will make our community response more efficient, but it also continues to demonstrate that the response to this issue must be community-based in order to make the impact we all want.”