April 28 homelessness symposium at Georgia State to address growth in “new homeless”
Apr 28, 2008    Georgia State University   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2008

CONTACT: Van Jensen, University Relations, (404) 413-1357, vjensen@gsu.edu

Homelessness symposium at Georgia State to address growth in “new homeless”

ATLANTA – As city officials seek to respond to a recent Convention and Visitors Bureau report that panhandling in Atlanta has increased significantly in the past year, Georgia State University will host a symposium on the problem of homelessness and the increase in “new homeless.”

While homelessness is largely a chronic problem – meaning people stay homeless for long periods of time – new findings in a 2007 survey of metro Atlanta’s homeless revealed that about half the city’s homeless have been on the street less than six months, said Josey Parker, a sociology doctoral student at Georgia State who assisted Pathways Community Network on the survey. That’s an 8 percent jump from the last survey in 2005. The shift toward “new homeless” might be a sign that efforts to benefit the chronically homeless have started to pay off, Parker said. In the 2007 survey, only 143 of more than 700 respondents qualified as chronically homeless, a decrease from previous years.

“We’re hopefully seeing a trend toward that population being reduced,” Parker said. “And newer homeless are easier to help and to provide homes for. We’re excited. That was very good news for us.”

That good news was tempered, though, by findings that 60 percent of homeless people suffer from substance abuse or mental and physical disabilities, Parker said. The full results of the survey will be presented at a symposium from 8:30 a.m. to noon Monday (April 28) in the Speaker’s Auditorium in the Georgia State Student Center. The event, which is open to the public, is co-sponsored by Georgia State University’s Department of Sociology, Center for Neighborhood and Metropolitan Studies and Andrew Young School of Policy Studies along with the Regional Commission on Homelessness of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.

In attendance will be homeless experts from nonprofit organizations, academia and faith-based groups, as well as officials from the City of Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb counties. The symposium will begin with a presentation of findings from the 2007 survey, then the attendees will break into groups to discuss the findings.

“There is a plan at work to move the homeless into permanent housing and to dramatically cut down on the chronic homeless,” said Tim Crimmins, a history professor at Georgia State and director of the Center for Neighborhood and Metropolitan Studies. “This is the chance to see how well that process is working. It’s a chance to get these folks together and to talk about it.”

Parker, who worked at a homeless shelter in Tampa, Fla., before starting her Ph.D. program, said one of the goals of the symposium is to encourage the different groups to develop new partnerships and find new ways to benefit the homeless.

“We hope to build some stronger collaborations and create a community dialogue,” Parker said. “We hope to provide a current picture of what a homeless person’s situation is. And because this is our third survey, we can try to provide trend analysis.”

The survey can be downloaded at: http://data.memberclicks.com/site/pat/2007%20Tri-J%20Survey%20Overview%20Report%20FINAL%20v2.pdf

What: Assessing Homelessness in Atlanta symposium

When: 8:30 a.m. to noon Monday (April 28)

Where: Georgia State Student Center, Speaker’s Auditorium, 44 Courtland Street SE

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