Construction is moving quickly on a downtown project that will substantially expand the city's capacity to house and retrain people without stable housing. The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta is building out its Center of Hope, a five-story, 46,000-square-foot facility at the corner of Marietta and Mills streets, about a block from the Georgia Aquarium and just north of Centennial Olympic Park.
The project grew out of a capital campaign called HOPE with Dignity, which raised funds to convert the organization's longstanding Red Shield Services shelter at 400 Luckie St. into a modernized campus. The existing building is cramped and cannot adequately separate male and female residents, a limitation supporters identified as the central problem the expansion needed to solve.
According to Invest Atlanta, the new building will double the size of the Salvation Army's current downtown footprint and raise the bed count from 321 to 437. Two floors will hold dormitory-style housing for men, with two more given over to individualized living spaces. Once the addition opens, the existing facilities can be dedicated entirely to women and families.
The other half of the program is education. A Salvation Army Education and Workforce Development Center will occupy part of the building with a computer lab, six classrooms, and study and collaboration areas, offering housing navigation, financial education, emergency assistance, and veteran-focused services. A portion of the new beds is reserved specifically for military veterans, and every unemployed resident will be routed through the workforce center at intake, which partners with local job placement agencies.
Funding came together from several directions. Invest Atlanta's board approved a $2 million Westside Tax Allocation District Ascension Fund Grant last year, with additional financing from Atlanta Emerging Markets at $15 million, investment firm Dudley Ventures at $9 million, and Truist Community Development Enterprises at $4 million. Dudley Ventures projects the expansion will create 23 full-time jobs in an area with a 47 percent poverty rate and nearly 24 percent unemployment.
The Center of Hope is scheduled for completion next year, according to the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. It joins a small but growing set of downtown projects built around the same premise — The Melody, the city's first rapid temporary housing initiative, and a modular housing proposal in Mechanicsville outlined by Mayor Andre Dickens — that permanent capacity, not temporary measures, is what actually moves the number.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published September 2024.
