New housing, supportive services on the way for unhoused men in Gwinnett County

Caption

The FIRST Housing Center in Lawrenceville is expected to open fall 2025.

Credit: Peter Biello

At a brick, two-story apartment building in the city of Lawrenceville, northeast of Atlanta, a construction worker cuts a hole in a bathroom countertop. By his feet on the dusty, unfinished floor is the porcelain sink that will soon fill that hole. 

Later this fall, this and seven other new apartments in this building will be available for unhoused men in Gwinnett County. 

Called the First Housing Center, the dwellings are the result of a public-private partnership years in the making. 

“When we were looking at our data and trying to think long-term about housing stability for homeless men, this building became an option,” said Jen Young, Executive Director of Impact46, a nonprofit that aims to improve cities like Lawrenceville through collaborative partnerships.

The city of Lawrenceville owns the building.

“So they became not only our landlord for this project, but a program partner as well,” Young said.

Through various funding sources, including federal grants, this 70-year-old building is being transformed from a crumbling eyesore to a safe, clean dwelling, decked out with brand new plumbing, walls, windows, and air conditioning. 

Young says she’s still searching for ways to diversify the funding sources for the First Housing Center. The men who need it will live here for free and will often be referred by the Lawrenceville Police Department. 

After that referral, says Young, “they come into our intake room and they receive a psychosocial assessment by our clinician who is on staff. [Then] they work with the case manager to form the treatment plan and the care plan for that participant to hopefully be here for 89 days. And then we look at all the barriers. We look at the different things that they're going to need in order to be successful when they leave here. And so from day one, we start planning those things.”

Young says she’s optimistic this new model will work, in part because the old model of arresting or displacing people through encampment sweeps was not working. More and more men were living in cars, couch surfing, or setting up outdoor camps.

“Thinking that extended stays or places that are open 24 hours or even encampments are sufficient for the unhoused is not acceptable here in Lawrenceville,” she says. “We want to create a high standard for all our citizens and residents. And so having a building that was already designed as a one-bedroom apartment will allow us to move those men in here. We've also done a lot of research that non-congregate shelters are far more successful than congregate [shelters]. So each man has their own independence.”

Each resident will have custom milestones spelled out for them in an individualized care plan. Some people, for example, may need help finding employment. Young says that’s where partnerships come in. 

“We have employment partners who offer second-chance jobs for those who have had a criminal background, or we work with partners who do stabilization and housing for those who have a criminal background or terrible credit,” she said.

Young credits the ability of the community to come together for the project’s success so far.

“Our common denominator is this city, and so we keep coming back to that," she said. "What does it mean to make Lawrenceville healthy and for us right now? This is the focus.”

The First Housing Center is scheduled to open in October.