After a legal battle that began over five years ago, the Peachtree and Pine Shelter shuttered its doors as part of a settlement agreement on August 28th, 2017. The shelter received their first order for eviction in 2012. The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless is the organization that represented the operations at the former warehouse on 477 Peachtree Street throughout the ensuing contentions. The Task Force’s mission is to provide direct homeless services and advocate for policies and programs that attack the underlying causes of homelessness. The iconic 100,000 square foot building was constructed for the United Motors Services by Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown in 1921. However, since moving in to the building in 1997, the Task Force has been the subject of local and national scrutiny that was as unwelcome as it was by its surrounding community, with emotional lawsuits that would claim powers such as eminent domain and saw even the City of Atlanta and Emory University Hospital as parties.
Between 2006 and 2014, the shelter was cited multiple times as the source of a tuberculosis outbreak that was seen at various local homeless shelters in Fulton County. The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2009 that the shelter didn’t follow all of their recommended steps to deter the spread of the disease, such as installing UV lighting that killed…