Malcolm Walker was grateful to have a roof over his head on Monday after spending the past six months living under a bridge.
The 32-year-old Atlanta resident was one of up to 80 unhoused people living in tents at the Pryor Street homeless encampment — located downtown under Interstate 20 — before a crew of government workers shut it down last week due to safety concerns.
Walker was among 24 people living in the Pryor Street tent city who have recently moved into the Ralph David House, a former Atlanta Motel location on Moreland Avenue in nearby Reynoldstown. Renovated and converted into an affordable housing complex for the unhoused last year, it was renamed after the famed Atlanta civil rights icon Ralph David Abernathy.
Walker and others who spoke with Capital B Atlanta on Monday said they’re pleased with their new home and glad that the Pryor Street camp was shut down.
“A lot of those folks didn’t want to move, but a lot of those folks did want to move,” Walker said. “It’s better for downtown, man. It’s better for the environment. It wasn’t no safe place to be.”
The Ralph David House has been a beacon of hope for formerly unhoused people living there since it began accepting tenants in March. The property contains 56 furnished studio apartments with approximately 300 square feet of living space. Each unit has wood floors and individual HVAC units, a cherished feature for people who’ve spent months — sometimes years — living outside during sweltering summer days and frigid winter nights.
Some of the new tenants told Capital B Atlanta the city needs more places like Ralph Davis House to give people who have fallen on hard times a chance to get back on their feet.
“You got women out here with children who can’t afford the rent,” said LaTanya Massey. At 57, Massey is a former nurse who said she moved into the renovated development about two weeks ago after spending more than a year living at the Pryor Street encampment. She’s pleased with her new home and wishes there were more options like it for women and the elderly.
“What do you do when you’re 76 years old, your kids don’t want to be bothered with you?” she lamented. “You’re stuck in the streets. Nobody’s there to help you.”
There are stringent requirements to become a tenant at Ralph David House, and the property’s developer, Stan Sugarman of Stryant Investments, worries potential new restrictions on federal housing aid resources promoted by the Trump administration could make it harder to get unhoused people approved to live there.
Sugarman told Capital B Atlanta the Reynoldstown complex gets 90% of its funding through the Atlanta Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ralph David House tenants get help paying their rent through HUD’s Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program. The White House wants to cut the budget for federal housing programs by about 43%, according to The Washington Post.
Capital B Atlanta has reached out to the White House for comment. Congress is expected to vote on Trump’s proposed federal budget later this year.
A man who entered Sugarman’s office Monday afternoon asked about getting a room at the Ralph David House. Sugarman told him all tenants are sourced through a group of nonprofit organizations that work with the unhoused community. He said new requirements placed on federal aid by the Trump administration could force him to turn away more unhoused tenants.
“We’re in a pause factor, because everybody’s waiting to see what happens,” Sugarman said.
