Atlanta nonprofit works to find solution for homeless during freezing weather

ATLANTA - A local nonprofit is stepping in to help people experiencing homelessness stay warm in freezing temperatures. 

"They're our neighbors they're humans. I'm a humanist. That's what it all boils down to," LeRone McGhee, founder of From Me Until Unity, said. 

McGhee said after the Peachtree and Pine homeless shelter closed down in 2017, the city's largest at the time, he felt compelled to do something to help. 

"In the push of saying hey do we have another facility to facilitate those 1,000 people the answer was always well the warming centers will be enough," McGhee explained. 

Be he says the need extended beyond warming centers alone. That's when he discovered igloos to house people experiencing homelessness in Paris. 

"I went on the internet and I researched I tried to find something that we could do to kind of combat that issue," he explained. The igloos are made with a foam and aluminum that traps heat. The non-profit launched a GoFundMe for their effort. Their goal is to raise $50,000 by September to get 500 throughout the city.

"We want to use it as an extension of the warming center, so when the warming centers are over capacity, we can have them go, and get the igloos, and use those igloos to house the homeless," McGhee said. 

The non-profit hopes something like this can make things a little bit easier for the thousands of people experiencing homelessness throughout the city.

"Just riding down the street and seeing people on the shoulders just there nothing no food or nothing somebody needs to help them someone. So why not step in and try to help," Lemuel Fair, the nonprofit's co-founder, said.

"When I see someone suffering, I say, ‘Hey, I could be in that position,’ and there have been times when I have been myself homeless in the past, so, it's very dear to me," McGhee added.