KELLY YAMANOUCHI ON FEB 5, 2018
SOURCE: MCCLATCHY, SecurityInfoWatch.com
Feb. 02--Atlanta airport officials like to boast that Hartsfield-Jackson International is the world's busiest and most efficient airport, with a terminal that always looks "opening day fresh."
But over the past few months, the airport's domestic terminal has become more known for being filled with homeless people overnight and into the early morning hours.
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For years, there have periodically been some homeless people at the airport, which is a public place open 24 hours a day. But the closure last year of downtown Atlanta's Peachtree-Pine shelter, which housed as many as 500 people, combined with a prolonged spate of frigid temperatures, has resulted in larger numbers of homeless seeking out a place to escape the cold.
The City of Atlanta opens warming centers when the temperature drops. Still, over the past couple of months many homeless have been taking MARTA to the Atlanta airport stop, settling down in the comfy chairs in the domestic terminal atrium or stretching out on the floor.
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For some travelers passing through the airport, it's a startling sight.
Frequent traveler Patricia Martin-Dye arrived at the airport overnight Thursday for an early morning flight and saw homeless people around the atrium and in the domestic terminal.
"They were everywhere," Martin-Dye said. "I've probably been in the airport more than 20 times in the last two years, and I can never remember it being the way it was last night.... It was just really concerning to me."
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There have already been incidents involving homeless at the airport.
On Jan. 28, a homeless man exposed himself near the airport domestic terminal atrium, according to a police report.
