Peachtree-Pine Vacant Lot Gated Shut

The men from the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter have moved on.

Well, not really.

Efforts to remove the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, which operates the controversial shelter, and relocate the men, remains tied up in courts.

But as Inspector Selena Swoope of the Atlanta Police Department’s Community Services Division - Community Oriented Policing Section - confirmed to Neighborhood Planning Unit E board members Tuesday night, the men are no longer spending much of the day loitering across the street in the vacant parking lot located at 464 Courtland Street.

That’s because the property owner, SunTrust Bank, has recently installed a metal fence around the lot and locked it shut. The lot is still cluttered with trash and debris, but that too will change soon according to another code enforcement officer accompanying Swoope at Tuesday’s meeting.

SunTrust, which gained control of the property by default, has also hired an officer to “work’’ the property according to an APD officer at the meeting. However, with that lot now gated up, the men have simply moved across the street to another vacated lot at the northeast corner of Pine and Courtland streets.

Several members of the NPU-E board expressed frustration over the much prolonged Peachtree-Pine shelter issue Tuesday night, but that is not uncommon at such meetings.

And as he has before, Geoff Rogers, vice president of the Midtown Neighbors' Association, offered up his version of a solution.

“The city of Atlanta has the option to shut the water off,’’ Rogers said. “Without water, the Department of Health would have to shut it down immediately, and the city of Atlanta has been told by the courts they have every right to do it.”