As Savannah’s homeless population continues to grow with more than 1,000 residents who are unsheltered, the Salvation Army has proposed a transitional use shelter in west Savannah to aid nearly 200 of those residents. The site of the proposed shelter has caused controversy due to its proximity to the location of The Weeping Time, which is believed to be the largest sale of enslaved people in U.S. history.
The site’s painful past along with a surrounding community that is already fighting 90% poverty rates in some areas and an urgent need to address homelessness has sparked debate and impassioned pleas among city officials, advocates of the unsheltered and local historians.