Members of the Augusta Homeless Task Force Subcommittee took a road trip to Columbus, Ga. on Aug. 24 to see how that city is dealing with homelessness. More than a dozen people made the trip, including subcommittee co-chairmen Commissioners Dennis Williams and Jordan Johnson.
Task force members identified Easley, S.C., Savannah and Columbus as cities with successful approaches for dealing with homelessness. Commissioner Johnson said Columbus was selected for the Aug. 24 visit because it had the highest success rate with Point-In-Time numbers going down, the number of organizations working together and, like Augusta-Richmond County, Columbus-Muscogee County is a consolidated government.
Point-In-Time is a biannual count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in Georgia. It is coordinated by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Statewide numbers had been declining in 2013, 2015 and 2017, but showed a sharp increase in 2019.
Johnson said they met with Mayor Skip Henderson and many of the organizations that are involved with Columbus’ city’s homelessness task force.
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“The United Way pretty much led the charge,” Johnson said. “We had the Salvation Army take us on a tour of their facility. SafeHomes took us on a tour of their facility. We met with their housing authority and continuum of care. The wealth of information we learned was just overwhelming.”
Johnson said one big difference between Augusta and Columbus is how agencies are working on addressing homelessness. In Augusta, agencies generally work on their own. In Columbus, they have a central location in their day center.
“When you come in for the day, you’re automatically connected to a case manager to start your journey to housing,” he explained. “You come in, to get off the street, to get a meal but you’re automatically connected to every service that you need.”
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Johnson says Augusta’s goal is that type of intensive case management.
He explained, “The key here is to get all of your partners involved. Public-private, it’s not a government solve-all. It is a community issue.”
Columbus has a page on its government website that focuses on programs for the homeless. Johnson said Augusta will soon have a similar resource.
He said they talked with members of the Columbus group about visiting Augusta to see what’s in place already and give advice on how to take the next steps.
“We’re ready. We are ready,” Johnson said.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
