Gainesville woman helps 'bridge people'

GAINESVILLE - A Gainesville woman, responding to an AccessNorthGA.com story about Gainesville's homeless people who live under the city's railroad bridges, this week decided to do something to help.

Tondra Stiles read of their pllight when she read ANGA's January 1st story and learned from Richard Bell with Feed the Need Ministry that they are cold and hungry. This week at a downtown laundramat where Bell brings people to wash their clothes, she brought homemade soup.

"I can't fix it for everybody but I can make some soup, so that's what I did," Stiles said.

Stiles added she plans to do more to help, but getting the people out of the cold is a the priority.

"We've got to try to help get these people out from under the bridge," Stiles said. "Whatever that means, I think we need to get the word out that they're there."

Bell said he's still hoping to find a vacant heated building in Gainesville to shelter them during the upcoming cold weather months.


At this week's Gainesville City Council meeting two council members said they were aware of the people under the city's bridges.George Wangemann says he recently found a homeless man while on one of his litter clean-up outings; Myrtle Figueras said she knows of some efforts to help but called for more, saying Gainesville has a large homeless population.

Figueras said she wants Bell to appear at an upcoming work session and inform Council directly about the bridge people and their needs. Council also expects to hear from Phillippa Lewis Moss, Director of the Community Service Center, about Gainesville's homeless problem.