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Hospitality to the Homeless ˜ 109
What Is the Problem with Underground Atlanta
by Murphy Davis
J u l y 1 9 8 9
Underground Atlanta has opened amid fireworks, fanfare, and public response
that exceeded the fondest hopes of the project’s developers. In the first
four days, more than a million people visited Underground, and who knows
how many millions of dollars were spent in the restaurants, bars, balloon and
T-shirt shops “The fun’s back in town,” screamed the billboards and politicians.
In the midst of all the hoopla, some of us went to jail. Others of us, along
with homeless advocates from around the city, leafleted and picketed in a driving
rain. Why When everybody was having such a great time, why would we
want to be the spoilsports who insisted on raising the unpleasant issues Why
interrupt the speech of Mayor Andrew Young, civil rights hero and successful
politician And what does Underground have to do with homelessness anyway
Underground Atlanta is an unequivocal statement of what is important to
our city. It has been the primary agenda of the Young administration and the
centerpiece of the business community’s plan. But development of Underground
has not just ignored the poor; Underground has been developed at the
expense of the poor. It is an entertainment center (only, of course, for those who
can afford it). But at the same time, 32 percent of the people who live in Atlanta
live below the poverty line (only Newark, New Jersey, has a higher percentage of
poor people). In this year, 35,000 to 40,000 men, women, and children have
slept in Atlanta’s private and public shelters for the homeless.
One hundred forty-two million dollars has been spent, and the city anticipates
spending another twenty million to thirty million dollars to subsidize the
project over the next ten years. Eight and a half million dollars spent on Underground
Atlanta came from community-development block-grant funds: federal
money specifically allocated for housing and jobs for the poor. Serious efforts
were made to persuade Mayor Young to put that money into housing,
which this city so desperately needs. The excuse has been that Underground is
creating jobs. But what kind of jobs Jobs that provide a living wage Surely not.
Forty percent of the men and women living in Atlanta’s shelters for the homeless
are employed. But still they cannot afford a place for themselves or their
families to live. Twelve million dollars came from city sales-tax revenues. Tax
money belongs to all of the people of the city. Surely some of that could have
been used to address the increasing suffering of the poor. Without even a vote
on the matter, Atlanta taxpayers were committed to backing eighty-five million
dollars in revenue bonds. If Underground fails, the home and property owners
of the city will pay off a debt of $7.5 million per year for twenty-five years.