Is Washington Road homeless crackdown delivering results?

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s been a month since the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office launched a homeless crackdown in the Washington Road/Interstate 20 corridor.

On Tuesday, Augusta Commissioner Sean Frantom is expecting to introduce a new panhandling ordinance at the committee meeting.

Frantom hopes to mirror Columbia County’s current ordinance.

What’s happened in the month since the launch?

The initiative officially started July 17 when 17 businesses initially signed up to let deputies clear out tresing homeless people and their possessions.

Neighbors also weighed in, saying this has been an issue for years that only gets attention during golf week.

The Richmond County Marshal’s Office is expected to the effort because of its interaction with the homeless through cleanups, evictions, citations and more.

The agency’s efforts most recently led officers to tally up around 60,000 pounds of belongings around Elkdom Court.

In late July, the Richmond County Marshal’s Office’s Lt. R. Silas explained the latest homeless issues along Washington Road.

Housing and Urban Development had been paying for homeless people to stay in hotels – many in that neighborhood. But the program eventually exhausted its funds, which sent those same homeless individuals back to Washington Road.

The program, funded by the CARES Act due to the COVID pandemic, started with $2 million locally in 2021, but that money ran out in 2022.

He also mentioned that during a count in February, officers spoke to 173 homeless people, and 98% were not from Augusta.

With Augusta’s available resources, Silas says the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office finds homeless people are being brought in by other agencies from cities as far as Macon and Savannah – even sometimes across the state line.

It’s also why a “sister duty agreement” between Augusta and Savannah was canceled.

Silas mentioned the initiative brought homeless people from Savannah to Augusta starting 18 years ago during Hurricane Katrina. After Hurricane Ian, he says there were too many homeless people for Augusta to continue to take in.

After this meeting a day later, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office announced it received about $275,000 in grant money to hire social workers for a “co-responder” program.

The continuing issue even prompted a community meeting in west Augusta at the Brynwood Swim Club. Neighbors there were advised to reach out to Augusta 311 and direct any homeless to the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope.

However, after checking in with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office multiple times to see how the program stands, two open records requests reveal the agency has not been tracking data or statistics on this program.

One business we’ve talked to on Washington Road loves the new level of attention, another says they’re leaving completely.

Regardless of liking the new ordinance or not, they agree the more attention the better.

Keeley Beauford, Manager at Café Dulce says, “We have had a few incidents since our last talk, but other than that, it definitely has seemed to slow down a lot.”

Others are more than thrilled.

Where there once used to be a homeless encampment near Ballroom In Motion, owner and instructor Teena Marie says the homeless used to bring drugs and nudity into their parking lot.

Now, she says it’s a safe space, “It’s been cleaned up substantially, I haven’t seen anything. I usually see people hanging around our parking lot at night.”

Now, others want to add to the effort.

Augusta Commission member Sean Frantom weighs into the effort by introducing a new panhandling ordinance to commissioners at Tuesday’s committee meetings, which he hopes to mirror Columbia County’s current ordinance.

It takes on more warnings and citations in public spaces.

“Most of the calls that we have are people requesting money by a sign. Some will have signs that say, ‘will work for food’, ‘will work for money’ and those are what we deal with mostly,” said Staff Sergeant Ray Childress with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.

The owner of 2 Boys Pizza and Grill, who we talked to a month ago, says they’ll be moving their business off of Washington Road in the next four to five months before this issue closes them permanently.

News 12 did ask the sheriff’s office for a comment on the program and they sent us to a recent podcast they did where they talk about bringing in the Richmond County Marshal’s Office.

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