Grady Memorial Hospital and the Policing Alternatives and Diversion (PAD) Program have agreed to help staff the facility. With their assistance, the initiative is expected to divert 41 people daily from the local jails, detention facilities and emergency rooms, according to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

With the hope that the center could potentially alleviate hospital emergency rooms, initial plans outlined the initiative would be staffed by Grady Memorial Hospital and the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Program. The initiative is expected to divert 41 people daily from the local jails, detention facilities and emergency rooms.

Without an ID, experts say a person can’t get out of homelessness. “You need it for any housing,” said Leni Garner, who works for the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative or PAD as a care navigator. It’s not just housing -- IDs are needed to get a job, a bank account, a car, and the like.

The 5-year-old nonprofit responds to calls for poverty, mental health and substance use. PAD's executive director, Moki Macias, said the increased funding will go to hire more staff. Currently, PAD has just under 40 staff members.

"This funding will allow us to expand our harm reduction response teams, the folks who show up when we get a call," Macias said. "It will allow us to expand our care navigation team, who work with people with open cases or who have been diverted by law enforcement and provide wraparound services long-term. It will allow us to double our outreach team.”

The Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, or PAD, began in 2017… Since expanding to cover all of the zones patrolled by the Atlanta Police Department zones in January 2021, the nonprofit has helped more than 400 people avoid jail time according to Director of Diversions Denise White.