MARTA Card Update

Last year (winter ’24-25) AHFEID provided a total of 1,318 MARTA cards to unhoused patrons primarily because there was no van pick up by Frontline in Decatur.  This winter ('25-'26), with the Decatur Library being a pick up location, our goals have been to reduce the number of people that Frontline would need to  transport from that location as well as to increase the efficiency of getting unhoused patrons to shelter. To date this winter, we have given out 1,093 MARTA tickets to assist people to get to warming centers. Unfortunately, the Decatur Library has become an unofficial day center for people who are unhoused, sometimes sheltering as many as 80 people a day. Because we are there, we know first-hand that the library is not equipped to take on the role of running a day center, no matter how valiantly they have tried to cope with the situation. It has become evident that there is a desperate need for a day center for unhoused individuals to go to.

Recently, the library has requested that we stop giving out MARTA tickets there. We recognize that the assistance that we are providing is contributing to an unsustainable situation at the library, so we have decided to end our distribution of MARTA cards at the end of this month.

AHFEID will continue to offer assistance to our unhoused neighbors in Decatur by keeping them apprised, with your help, of when the warming centers will be open and the van schedule. We will also offer MARTA cards to the Decatur Police Department so that officers have them to use in emergencies.  And we stand ready to work in concrete ways with Frontline, the City of Decatur, and our county partners to ensure that the transport to warming centers of our unhoused neighbors in Decatur and DeKalb county is orderly, efficient, and respectful.

Please address any questions or concerns that you may have to Greg White.

Thank you very much.

Greg White, AHFEID Executive Director

Gregwhite@ahomeforeveryoneindekalb.org