A 15-member study committee held its first meeting and took its first steps to identify factors contributing to homelessness across the state and find long-term solutions to what they have identified as a critical problem in Georgia.
The Senate Study Committee, which was created by Senate Resolution 352, is being chaired by Sen. Renee Unterman (R – Buford), who opened the meeting by describing this as a “very special day for me.”
“In my 25 years as an elected official, everything I do has come back to the homeless and how we address this issue,” said Unterman. “I am excited that we have the opportunity to address this as a statewide issue.”
While the overall numbers of homelessness continue to show a decrease across the state, they are still staggering. According to David Whisnant, Director, Office of Homeless and Special Needs Housing for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, there are currently 10,000 “truly homeless” people in Georgia. This number reflects a 25 percent decrease from January 2015 — which showed 13,790 homeless Georgians on a single night, according to Whisnant.
This number includes 1,564 homeless veterans — more than 18 percent of which are female veterans, who face a unique set of struggles on their own, according to Veda Brooks, Director, Women Veteran Coordinator of the Georgia Department of Veterans Services.
“Most don’t know where to start when they transition from military to civilian life,” said Brooks. “They are coming from an environment where everything has been taken care of for them, to a life where they have to take care of everything on their own.”
Brooks said state officials need to look at ways to ease the transition for these veterans.
“There needs to be a plan in place that these women veterans can follow before they leave the service to help prepare them for the transition,” she said. “We must provide a link between our state resources and our veterans.”
Brooks stated that most homeless veterans suffer from a mental illness which is not being treated. Many also have skills that served them well in the military, but are not transferrable to today’s workforce, she said.
Whisnant told members of the panel — which includes many state department heads — that there are many misconceptions about homelessness.
“About 45 percent of the homeless work in the conventional market,” said Whisnant. “Homelessness is a poverty issues, a housing issue and a disability issue.”
He also explained that there are several ways to estimate numbers of homeless. The state education department uses a different method from DCA, and under that recording method, Georgia’s numbers increase — especially Georgia children attending public schools. Under that reporting system, there are nearly 30,000 homeless students in Georgia’s public K-12 schools.
DCA uses the following categories to define homelessness:
● Sheltered Homeless – lives in emergency shelter, transitional housing for homeless persons or a hotel or motel with the stay being paid for by an organization
● Unsheltered Homeless – lives in a car, park, abandoned building, encampment, dilapidated building, on the sidewalk, or similar location
● Precariously Housed: is facing loss of housing within the week or staying in dilapidated housing (not fit for human habitation)
● Other Homeless – is in jail, a hospital, or a detox program, but would otherwise have been homeless
Sen. Unterman plans to hold meetings in October and November, before the committee reports its findings and recommendations, including proposed legislation, by December 1, 2017.
