In a move to repurpose the closed Atlanta Medical Center, city officials have announced that the facility's former athletic club will be transformed into an emergency homeless shelter. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told FOX 5 Atlanta the building will provide housing options and medical care for homeless individuals. The site has been empty since November 2022 after Wellstar shuttered the health center due to financial struggles. Wellstar's closure of the busy emergency room left several low-income residents without vital health care services.
The announcement comes as the city prepares to clear out residents living beneath bridges. An email statement from the Mayor's office obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said this shelter strategy is part of the city's efforts to seek long-term housing solutions. Atlanta continues to grapple with homelessness and the move is seen as a response to the imminent clearing of encampments, raising questions about the fate of the unhoused population.
According to city councilwoman Keisha Sean-Waites, an alternative proposal included transforming the vacant property into a multi-use community center that is named after late Congressman John Lewis. In addition to transitional housing and a health clinic, plans for the Atlanta Medical Center's redevelopment also encompass a drug and alcohol recovery program and a job training facility. Sean-Waites stated in a FOX 5 Atlanta interview that the proposal could help hospitals overcome patient overflows with 100 hotel-style short-term emergency rooms included in the design.
While the shelter project is set to offer crucial services, the overarching issue of the city's healthcare landscape looms large following the AMC closure. In his podcast interview, Mayor Dickens lashed out at Wellstar for abandoning the facility, a decision he dubbed as the "nuclear option." "I was extremely disappointed in WellStar as an organization," Dickens stated. As the moratorium on Wellstar's land continues to block redevelopment or a sale of the property, citizens like council member Amir Farokhi have voiced concerns about the potential blight accumulating on the once-essential medical campus.
Despite the redevelopment moratorium and Dickens' disapproval of Wellstar's decline of AMC, Wellstar has cooperated with the city in the shelter effort. A Wellstar statement released on Friday reads, "Wellstar is working with Mayor Dickens to open the AMC athletic center portion of the campus for the City of Atlanta to use as a temporary emergency shelter." Moving forward, the city, with assistance from Fulton County and local service providers, aims to find more shelter locations for the displaced homeless individuals.
