Atlanta is set to pause the clearing of homeless encampments after a man in his 40s was killed by a city truck when his camp was removed.
Mayor Andre Dickens is speaking out following the death of Cornelius Taylor on January 16, when he was killed after an Atlanta City Public Works truck rolled over his tent, witnesses say, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. Taylor was killed on Old Wheat Street near Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center. Witnesses said he was asleep when city officials said they were going to clear the encampment.
Dickens took to Instagram on Friday night, sharing a video to promise that changes would be made, including a review of city policies.
"Every life in this city matters to me,” Dickens says in the video. “While we are still gathering all the facts, this terrible accident expresses the need to reevaluate and reassess our city’s policies concerning homeless encampments and how we can better our unhoused population.”
"We are working closely with the Atlanta City Council,” he added. “I have asked District 1 Councilmember Jason Winston to introduce new legislation to review our policies and procedures for encampment closures, rehousing, and how we care for the unsheltered.
"This legislation also includes a temporary moratorium on encampment closures to allow us time to examine our policies and expand our outreach efforts, ensuring that this work can be done safely and that a tragedy like this one never happens again," said Dickens.
The mayor argued in his social media message that the clearings are needed to rehouse people and divert those experiencing homelessness from places he said are “incredibly unsafe.”
While the mayor argued that clearings are necessary as the camps are a threat to public safety, the city is taking measures to avoid anything like this happening again.
"The loss of Cornelius Taylor was a terrible accident. And we will meet this tragic moment with compassion, with urgency, and with love," said Dickens.
The city council has introduced two pieces of legislation to establish a review of homelessness policies and to put in place a moratorium on clearings, according to 11Alive.
"Make no mistake, we must do everything in our power to safely and humanely close these encampments and provide housing and stability to our neighbors who have found themselves out in the cold," said Dickens.
Winston introduced legislation that would examine "the city’s current policies and procedures utilized to address issues surrounding persons experiencing homelessness to determine whether these policies and procedures adequately address the current needs of persons experiencing homelessness and the public safety concerns of residents and visitors to the City of Atlanta."
The legislation would also enact a 30-day moratorium on clearings.
Separately, Councilmembers Liliana Bakhtiari and Antonio Lewis introduced legislation that emphasizes a moratorium on clearings on a less distinct timeline, pausing the clearings until two things are completed: The CEO of Partners for HOME, the city’s partner organization for homelessness services, puts together a report within 30 days “on the proposed procedures, precautions, and contingencies necessary to prevent similar incidents in the future” and until such a time that the council “approves said proposed procedures, precautions, and contingencies through the adoption of a resolution.”
Taylor’s family spoke with local media after his death and announced they hired a lawyer to conduct an investigation into the incident.
“He was a father and uncle, a nephew, a cousin. He was somebody,” said Taylor’s sister, Darlene Chaney, according to Atlanta News First.
Those who knew Taylor said he had just gotten a job and had aspirations for his future.
“I will shout to the rooftops to create change because justice is due to not only my family but all the other families that we don’t talk about. I couldn’t save him but we can all save the next one,” Chaney said.
