Former Prison Now Public Housing Unit : Community: A 100-year-old jail privately converted by a nonprofit group offers Atlanta’s working poor a way out.

“It’s small, but it’s big enough for my husband and me . . . and we have our privacy,” says Renita Braswell. Renita and her husband, Ken, are among the families now living in GlenCastle, a former Atlanta prison converted into an apartment complex and community center for the working poor.

Like many of the other families, Ken and Renita, who recently moved to Atlanta from Chicago, had been living in a shelter and staying with friends while they looked for work. They found out about the unusual housing complex through one of the counselors at the city’s Task Force for the Homeless.

The formidable-looking structure, Georgia’s oldest prison, is listed on the National Registry of Historic Sites. It may become a model of public housing for the country, says Renny Scott, the executive director. “Places like GlenCastle can offer entry points for stable community living,” he says.

In Atlanta, as in many other American cities, low-cost housing is limited, and close to 750 families are on the waiting list for public housing. “There’s a lot of housing development going on by nonprofit groups around the country because the government hasn’t stepped in to meet the need. But as far as I know, GlenCastle is unique,” says Anita Beaty of the Task Force for the Homeless.

Not only does GlenCastle offer affordable rents, ranging from $180 to $250 monthly, and a variety of resources, it also offers residents easy access to the city’s buses and rapid transit system. The complex is located less than five minutes east of Atlanta’s downtown.

Residents are referred to GlenCastle through different social agencies and shelter coordinators working with the homeless and poor. Each applicant is interviewed by the chairwoman of the Residence Selection Committee and the resident manager. After the interviews, committee chairwoman Allison White presents the applications to GlenCastle’s seven-member selection committee for final approval.

Along with an agency referral, applicants must have held a job for at least 30 days, have an income of $5,000 to $14,000 and have been drug-free for six months. “We’ve got some pretty special people living here. They’ve faced some of the toughest challenges confronting urban Americans today, and they’ve survived. They’re moving on and up,” Scott says.

The committee, in an effort to create a balanced and stable community, has already selected 64 families from a variety of backgrounds, races and age groups. About 45 families remain on a waiting list. Residents include single parents, former addicts, the physically handicapped, the mentally handicapped and a few elderly people. The list also includes some former prison inmates and battered women.

Security--once so important at GlenCastle--is another attractive feature. Angelica, a young single mother with a 6-month-old daughter, says, “I feel safe here. There’s a security guard here at night, and they keep all of the doors locked. You can’t get in unless you have a key.”

Though none of the families were required to pay a deposit, they were asked to pay a full month’s rent and sign a month-to-month lease. Many of the residents had never signed a lease before. Johnny, an electronics technician and recovering addict, says, “It’s real nice here, and as far as the rent goes, there’s no way you can beat it.”

All of the predominantly single-room apartments are painted white and fully furnished with a daybed and a trundle bed, bunk beds for children, a table, four chairs, a bureau and kitchen appliances. Apartments also have windows and a loft that can be used for storage or, in the larger units, sleeping space.

Constance Boyce, a resident who was recently hired to manage the apartments, says, “I think there’ll be a strong sense of community here. It won’t be 100%, but I’ve already seen some leaders come out. . . . People are helping new tenants--carrying boxes and telling them where to shop in the neighborhood.”

Weekly Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings are held in the commons area. A clause in the apartments’ leases forbids residents to have illegal drugs.

Terri, a recovering drug and alcohol addict who attends at least one meeting a day at GlenCastle and other locations around the city, says, “It’s a great project. It gives people a chance to get started again, and it gives us a clean, healthy environment to live in.”

But some of the same problems that have plagued other low-cost housing projects are likely to crop up here, since so many of the residents have been “wounded and broken,” according to Scott. But, he says, “we’re making a premier effort to build a community here. We’ll struggle, but we’ll struggle as a community.”

The GlenCastle project has been recognized both locally and nationally. Atlanta’s recently elected mayor, Maynard Jackson, says, “It’s the kind of project I support and would like to see repeated throughout our city and country.” President Bush recently described the renovated prison as “one of the thousand points of light” exemplary of “community services central to the life and work of every American.” No city, state or federal funds were used in the project.

But GlenCastle represents more than just a novel solution to part of the city’s housing problem. It also represents imaginative planning and a widespread effort from Atlanta’s business community.

Conversion of the 100-year-old concrete fortress wasn’t a quick or easy task. The complex, which includes a blacksmith shop and stables, had been vacant for close to 60 years when Family Consultation Services, a nonprofit corporation working with Atlanta’s poor, bought the property three years ago for $210,000. Originally, Bob Lupton, head of FCS, hoped to purchase just the stables to use as a warehouse for furniture and building materials, but he learned that the owners would not sell only the stables.