Athens Alliance Coalition continues work at First Step amidst allegations, rumors

The First Step homeless encampment has provided a clean place to sleep and other services for hundreds of people experiencing homelessness since it opened last year. But legal trouble and rumors of criminal activity have followed camp leadership, which is something the ACC Commission may consider as the camp’s contract comes up for renewal this year.

First Step is run by Charles Hardy, CEO of the Athens Alliance Coalition, which is a non-profit he founded to help improve the lives of youth and the homeless community in Athens. In the past, Athens Alliance Coalition was volunteer-based and funded primarily by Hardy with his own money in addition to some small donations.

That changed in 2021 when the local government awarded Hardy’s group a $2.5 million contract to open a government-sanctioned homeless camp using funding from the American Rescue Plan. Athens Alliance Coalition was the only organization that applied for the funding. The local government provided the campus of an old school at the end of Barber Street as the camp’s location, and the new camp, named “First Step,” opened its doors on March 16, 2022. 

How First Step serves residents

Hardy’s group provides security to keep the camp safe and organizes donations of food and clothing to help residents get back on their feet. Beyond basic needs like sanitation and security, Hardy says that Athens Alliance staff also help residents get jobs, secure their finances and eventually help them into permanent housing through Advantage Behavioral Health’s rapid rehousing program, services that are not stipulated in their contract with Athens-Clarke County.

“People come through here and they get their stuff together,” Hardy told APN. “We take them to job interviews. We help them set up their debit cards where they can start saving money. It’s been a big success. We had a lot of people doubting the success of something like this. They can’t doubt the work now, because the success speaks for itself.”

Hardy says that First Step has been full to its capacity of 55 residents since it opened, with several hundred people cycling through as residents over the past year. The main benefit First Step offers these residents is increased stability and a meeting of their basic human needs, according to John Morris, the THRIVE Community Programs Team Lead for Advantage Behavioral Health.

“At First Step, people have a somewhat stable living environment where they have a place to sleep at night, they know they’re gonna get two meals every day and they have a place to throw away their trash,” Morris told APN. “I believe that when people have their basic human needs met, they can have the mental bandwidth to think about housing, to think about employment.”

Morris’ team sets up at First Step every Friday to offer residents services from Advantage Behavioral Health. Over the past year, he says he’s helped 15 First Step residents find permanent housing. That’s life-changing for those 15 people, but the biggest success of First Step, according to Morris, is that it helps residents find employment.

Hardy says about 85% of First Step residents are able to find jobs with support from his group. When it comes to housing, he says he’s selective about which residents are placed into the limited apartment rooms that come available. “We want to set them up for success and not failure. A person who has been in the woods for years, they might not be ready to go into an apartment. We try to build them up so they are ready.”

Brent Temple, chair of the Athens Alliance Coalition’s board of directors, speaks glowingly of the work the organization has done and praised Hardy’s dedication in a comment to APN.

“Charles is doing an incredible job over at First Step,” Temple said. “A Black-led organization stepped up to do a job that no one else would do and is doing vastly more than their contract stipulates, in that we’re getting people housed and employed. We’re supporting the dignity of unhoused people with a safe environment that they can trust and lean on while they’re putting the other pieces together.”

This success will not likely be enough to silence critics. Certainly, not everyone views the First Step encampment or Charles Hardy himself in the same positive light.

Rumors and allegations

The idea of an official homeless encampment was bitterly opposed by local conservatives when it was first developed. The idea was controversial among ACC Commissioners as well. Opponents of the plan said that it would “invite poverty and crime” and that it would be a “magnet” to bring people experiencing homelessness into Athens. Others said that the plan would only waste money while actually encouraging homelessness by making the homeless lifestyle more tolerable.

Since then, rumors have spread over social media that the camp is infested with crime and that Hardy himself is often behind it, encouraging or participating in the criminal activity. Temple dismisses these rumors, saying that there’s no evidence to support any of it.

“There are people out there making wild statements on social media about drug rings and prostitution,” Temple says. “Any accusations of criminal activity on the camp site are unfounded, inaccurate and potentially deeply dishonest.”

Yet, the rumors have persisted and only intensified after Hardy was arrested, twice, for misdemeanor battery.

Allegations of battery

Hardy was arrested last year on August 29 and again on October 30 for misdemeanor battery in connection with his work at the First Step camp. The first accusation was made by a former resident and the second by a former camp employee.

These allegations are slowly working their way through the court system, with the first case being delayed by a mistrial. Temple says that he expects his CEO will eventually be exonerated in both incidents.

“We [the Athens Alliance Board] do not believe the allegations as they are being made,” Temple said. “He is not guilty of assault, he is not aggressive.”

Going further, Temple insists that Hardy was himself the victim of assault, particularly in the first incident which was caught on video by First Step’s surveillance cameras.

“It’s very clear to people who see the video that Charles was the victim of assault and that the staff, including Charles, took great pains to follow their deescalation training to contain the situation.”

UPDATE (5/3/23): Charles Hardy has been found guilty of misdemeanor battery against Jada Prothro (the August 29 incident) and has been sentenced to two years probation and a $1405 fine.

Rumors of more serious crimes

Those who view the camp as a crime-ridden and dangerous place take the allegations against Hardy as evidence to confirm their preconceptions. Temple says he’s heard rumors floating around that Hardy is guilty of drug trafficking, sexual assault, sexual coercion and also of violence and threats of violence against residents. However, there has never been any evidence provided to back up these rumors. Nor has there been any formal accusations made for any crime beyond the misdemeanor battery charges.

Unsurprisingly, Temple firmly rejects the rumors. “People are accusing him of things with what appears to me as an aggressive lack of seriousness for due process of law, and the truth.”

Morris, who is at the camp weekly but is not associated with the Athens Alliance Coalition, also rejects the perspective that First Step is a dangerous place. He admits that there are sometimes incidents and that the camp is not perfect, but overall he says it’s a safer and more stable environment than residents would get living in the woods.

“I hear some pretty crazy stories of some intense violence and danger from people living in unsheltered environments outside of First Step,” Morris said. “I don’t hear those from people in First Step. I don’t hear from my clients there that their stuff gets stolen. I don’t hear that their tent gets burned down in the middle of the night. I don’t hear that they are being assaulted by other individuals in the camp.”

Commissioners will consider extending the camp’s contract

The local government is currently developing a long-term strategic plan to address homelessness which will help determine the most efficient way to spend the remaining funds in Athens’ share of the American Rescue Plan. The plan will probably be complete sometime this summer. Therefore, it remains to be seen if an official homeless camp like First Step will be a part of the local government’s vision for how to address homelessness in Athens for the long-term. 

And even if it makes it into the plan, the ACC Commission might decide to scrap the idea anyway. They’ve certainly grown more conservative as a body since their 5-5 vote to authorize First Step in 2021 (Mayor Kelly Girtz broke the tie in favor of the camp).

If the camp is not continued, Hardy says it would be a tragedy for residents whom First Step provides with a stable living environment.

“If this is shut down, it’s going to be a mess,” Hardy said. “[The residents] will go back from where they started from – into the woods. If I was just sitting here not doing nothing, I could see them not continuing it. But I’m getting people jobs, I’m getting people apartments, I’m getting people enrolled in Athens Tech.”

Whatever its flaws, First Step has been an innovative approach to tackling homelessness in Athens, which has been a persistent problem. If commissioners like the idea of an official encampment but don’t believe Hardy’s group has implemented it appropriately, for whatever reason, another option would be to find another group to manage the camp. 

But there’s no guarantee any other group would be interested. It’s worth repeating that last time, there was only one applicant asking to run the camp.

Without additional funding, First Step will close in January 2024. 

Commissioners will decide later this year, possibly in the fall, whether to continue the First Step encampment or to put 55 homeless residents back into the woods.

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