Action Alert

Subject: ACTION ALERT: Housing for Homeless in Jeopardy
Please contact the members of the Atlanta City Council asking for support of the new Supportive Housing Ordinance! You do not have to live in the City of Atlanta to ask for their support!


Suggested language (please revise into your own wording if possible):
Please support the adoption of the new Supportive Housing Ordinance. Unlike the current Ordinance which is restrictive and discourages supportive housing because of an expensive, risky, special use permit, this Ordinance will have a profound impact on our ongoing efforts to create more supportive housing, a direction that is essential in our goal of ending chronic homelessness in our City.
Thank you.After working on the issue for over a year, the Atlanta City Council is poised to consider a new Ordinance which would allow critically needed supportive housing within city limits without undue restrictions or discrimination.

But passage of this critically needed Ordinance, which would enable the chronically homeless to become housed and receive the services they so badly need, is in jeopardy.

You may remember the Council adopted what was considered by some to be a "temporary" Ordinance last summer in response to pressure from constituents. At the time, it was thought to be more important to "have something on the books" even if it was flawed and discriminatory. The Mayor agreed and vetoed the Ordinance only to see her action overridden by City Council. (See the link in the box to the left for more information about the old and new versions of the Ordinance.)

That approach was simply ill-advised - to pass a law that is known to be flawed and discriminatory and probably illegal, to create massive confusion in the non-profit and housing community - for no reason other than unwillingness to take the time to get it right in the first place

Now, many of the same Councilmembers who said that the old Ordinance was temporary are lobbying against the new one!

The chronically homeless, which includes those who are handicapped, have no voice or influence before these decision makers.

Opponents of the new Ordinance are well-healed and influential in political circles and have the ear of elected officials.

Please, speak out for the voiceless and contact the members of the Atlanta City Council asking for support of the new Supportive Housing Ordinance! You do not have to live within the city limits of Atlanta to help. Each member of Council should be contacted.
Time is of the essence. Please, contact the members of Atlanta City Council today.
Email are in the website below