Homeless tent city a haven from the cold | www.myajc.com

Their roof is I-20 East. Their walls are nylon.

More than 300,000 vehicles each day pass over them on I-20 or whir by on the Downtown Connector, largely unaware of the collection of forgotten and miserable people huddled inside tents, hiding in plain sight next to one of the busiest intersections in the Southeast.

As temperatures were set to plummet to single digits, those living in the 30-some tents just south of downtown readied themselves Monday afternoon for a bone-chilling cold not felt in Atlanta for years.

Life in the cluster of tents is a desperate, nomadic existence, said James L. Wise, a weathered 56-year-old who immediately asked a visitor for a cigarette. Wise, an Atlanta native, recently got his yellow, two-man tent from social workers at Grady Hospital after a stay there.

“It was cold here last night,” said Wise, peeking out from the relative warmth of his shelter in the midday sun. “I got a sleeping bag and four covers.”

Wise has been coming to the area on and off for three years, calling it “scat living.”

“The DOT or state police come in here and we have to scat,” he said, complaining that belongings are often tossed into a dump truck and done away with. “Then you have to start all over again.”

A homeless man who would not give his name huddled by a fire across the street from the tent city. Another man sat on a battered folding chair.

“It’s simple survival,” he said. “You do what you can. All trash is burnable.”

Jerry Lewis, a roofer when he works, said the previous night was cold but not unbearable. The overpass keeps the rain off them and the tents slow down the biting wind, especially when they are huddled together.

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