The City of Atlanta scored a victory this week when a federal judge rejected an appeal by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, which occupies the controversial shelter at Peachtree and Pine streets. The task force aimed to reverse a ruling that found it owed $147,288 for unpaid water and sewer services — causing the city to shut the water off in 2009. (It was later restored). In a ruling released Tuesday, the federal judge "ruled in favor of the city in every element of the lawsuit," wrote the Saporta Report. It's another setback for the shelter, labeled a bane by some city and business leaders and a necessity by shelter proponents.
As the Saporta Report notes, the shelter has "exhausted virtually all of its legal options at the federal level." City Attorney Cathy Hampton told the site, "We are very pleased with today's ruling ? We believed that this lawsuit had no merit." The building has been housing hundreds of homeless men for nearly 20 years on Atlanta's signature street. In 2010, the nonprofit Ichthus Community Trust bought the building, foreclosed on it, and the Task Force has been fighting eviction through a series of lawsuits ever since. We ask Curbed Atlanta readers: In a perfect world, what would you like to see become of this property?
· City scores significant legal win over Task Force for the Homeless [Midtown Patch]
· Homeless shelter loses appeal [AJC]
· 11th Circuit Court upholds earlier ruling against Homeless Task Force [Saporta Report]
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