Hope Atlanta Field Report 4th Edition: March 2024

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Dear friends,

This year, Melody Bloodworth would be celebrating her 42nd year of life. But in 2022, she perished on the streets of Atlanta. Suffering from unaddressed mental health challenges, she cycled for years between healthcare facilities, jail, shelters, and bouts of homelessness. She was among countless others failed by a system ill-equipped to provide holistic support. But Melody’s story didn’t end with her tragic death.

In January, I attended the ribbon cutting for The Melody, a groundbreaking housing initiative named in her honor. Hope Atlanta is proud to play a pivotal role at The Melody, providing wraparound services, including behavioral health care, to meet each client’s needs.

Our latest Field Report takes you inside The Melody and explains how this community and other planned rapid housing initiatives will meet a critical need in Atlanta. It also includes a Q&A with our Director of Outreach and Emergency Services, updates from our partnership with QuikTrip, and heartwarming client stories.

The victories of the past few months testify to our collective resolve to rewrite the narrative of homelessness. With the support of compassionate community members like you, I believe a more hopeful future is within reach.

Julio Carrillo
CEO, HOPE Atlanta

TL;DR

• The Melody, which recently welcomed its first residents, is a groundbreaking rapid housing project with 40 micro-units and community amenities. Residents transitioning from homelessness receive wraparound services to help them meet their basic needs and move toward self-sufficiency, and Hope Atlanta provides onsite behavioral health care, care coordination, an onsite resident advisor, and more.
• Behavioral health care is crucial for many people experiencing or transitioning from homelessness, and Hope Atlanta’s in-house clinicians at The Melody offer personalized support. We’re advancing client care with the PsRI-30, a tool developed by Senior Director of Programs and Clinical Services Dr. Edward Valentin to assess social determinants of health and measure impact.
• Adam Hawkins, Hope Atlanta’s Director of Outreach and Emergency Services, shared updates from the field on the state of homelessness in Atlanta and his experience participating in the latest Point in Time (PIT) Count.
• QuikTrip’s generous grant has helped us reach more people in need in our community. In just the first six weeks, this partnership enabled our outreach teams to serve more than 240 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including 153 children.