Residents of Jasper homeless shelter scramble after eviction notice service

JASPER COUNTY, Ga. - A faith-based organization is scrambling to find somewhere for nearly a dozen residents to stay Monday after city officials served the shelter they were living in with an eviction notice.

Those residents, several of whom are elderly or in wheelchairs, spent the day trying to salvage what they could of their now-soaked personal items. Their stuff was tossed out on the street by Pickens County sheriff’s deputies Monday morning.

City leaders told FOX 5 the eviction was the result of life safety code violations.

In Jasper, some of the city’s neediest residents say they were forced to stand out in cold, rainy conditions as they watched their belongings be put out.

"The residents called and said they got us all outside and they’re putting our stuff outside," Amy Ghorley, the founder of Refuge in Jesus Shelter, told FOX 5.

She says the group was evicted after a months-long dispute with city leaders who claim the building was in violation of a number of safety codes.

"They finally succeeded today with a court order to throw us out instantly," she said. "They came over and put everybody out."

Ghorley says it's truly heartbreaking because the residents have no where to go.

She tells FOX 5 she initially agreed to vacate the property by March 15 because they had found another building to lease, but Pickens County officials issued a stop work order and court injunction on the property. She says they cited a failure to comply with requirements from the fire marshal and the environmental health office.

"We needed showers put in," she said. "We needed some updating as far as fire code, and we needed another septic tank added to it."

Ghorley tells FOX 5 they were in the process of making those improvements for residents like James David Howard.

"They don’t like the homeless," Howard said plainly. "We see that there."

A spokesperson for the city released the following statement:

"The shelter is being operated by a spiritual group that feels called to provide aid to the homeless regardless of the regulations of the City....the City recognizes there is a great need in our community for services to assist the homeless population and believes that our religious communities will rise to this challenge and help these people in need."