Go Back
  • For Business
  • |
  • Warnings
  • Data Suite
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising
  • Superior Accuracy™
A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows. Chevron right
Recovery teams, displaced residents in Texas face brutal heat. Chevron right

Columbus, OH

73°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Columbus

Ohio

73°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Columbus, OH Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

For Business

Warnings

Data Suite

Newsletters

Advertising

Superior Accuracy™

Video

Winter Center

AccuWeather Early Hurricane Center Top Stories Trending Today Astronomy Heat Climate Health Recreation In Memoriam Case Studies Blogs & Webinars

News / Weather News

How shipping containers in Atlanta became tiny homes for the homeless

After a year of living on the streets, James “Jimmy” Thompson’s joints don’t hurt from sleeping on the sidewalk. He doesn’t have to take a few hours to warm up in the morning. No longer does he have to lug 50 pounds of his belongings every time he needs to move.

By Brammhi Balarajan, CNN

Published Feb 26, 2024 1:00 PM EDT | Updated Feb 26, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Copied

People are seen at The Melody, a complex of 40 units offering transitional housing made from shipping containers, in Atlanta, on February 9. (Austin Steele/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — James “Jimmy” Thompson lay awake on concrete, hoping he’d be able to fall asleep – praying even more he’d wake up in the morning.

His feet, hobbled and pained from living on the street, were a constant burden. At least once or twice a week he says he’d be threatened. What few belongings he still had were constantly at risk of being stolen.

But after a year living on the streets of Atlanta, that pervading fear is gone.

Slowly, the pieces came together. He found and joined a church in Atlanta. A member of the church helped him with his foot pain.

Then thanks to a shipping container turned house, the final piece slid into place – a home.

“All the hard work, prayers and blessings it took to get me here, I’ll never understand,” Thompson said. “But I can be grateful.”

The shipping container – a remnant from Covid-19 used by hospitals for extra space – was refashioned by the city as part of a project in hopes of helping many of the city’s chronically unhoused.

Now, Thompson’s joints don’t hurt from sleeping on the sidewalk. He doesn’t have to take a few hours to warm up in the morning. No longer does he have to lug 50 pounds of his belongings every time he needs to move.

Thompson is embarking on a new beginning.

James "Jimmy" Thompson is a new tenant at The Melody, a housing complex in Atlanta that shaped shipping containers into homes for the homeless (Austin Steele/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Reaching the most vulnerable

Tucked into downtown Atlanta, The Melody, named after an Atlanta native who died after a struggle with chronic homelessness, is the city’s latest project providing housing for the unhoused. Made from metal shipping containers, the new tiny homes have anything but a sterile feel to them.

The tiny homes are complete with a bed, sink, shower, refrigerator, oven and microwave. A little window lets tenants look out into the courtyard of red porch chairs and grass. Although the containers are small, tenants joked they felt anything but tiny.

The best part, tenants say? A sense of privacy.

“I want to say it’s made just for me, but it’s made for people like me and others,” resident George Suddeth said.

“I can go in my own room, I can lay down, I can go to sleep when I like,” he added. “I can eat what I like. Nobody messes with you, it’s really a dream come true.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual housing report, released in December 2023, showed more than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness across the nation on any given night – a 12% increase from the year prior. The growth was a continuation of a pre-pandemic rise in homelessness.

The report showed there were more than 12,000 people homeless in Georgia in 2023 – a 15% increase from the year before. The report showed nearly half were living unsheltered.

Meanwhile, a point-in-time count – a yearly initiative where volunteers survey Atlanta neighborhoods and estimate the city’s homeless population conducted by Partners for Home, an organization working to end homelessness – calculated 2,679 homeless people in the city in 2023. The number marked a slight uptick from 2022’s count of 2,017 but a decrease from 2020 when 3,240 homeless were counted.

Shipping containers quickly help housing gaps

The words “Welcome home,” sprawled across the side of one of the units, which resembles a mobile home, greets residents each day. The black shipping container community circles a courtyard with fresh purple flowers and an artificial lawn.

“I was ecstatic, I was excited,” new tenant Sherlyn Freeman said after getting the keys to her unit. “The whole time, I was smiling, excited. That’s what I do every time I go there – it’s mine.”

That first night sleeping in her own bed was “heaven.”

She’s done stints sleeping at a hotel – but nothing, she said, beat having a home of her own.

“Being homeless - I never thought that I would be there. But I was, and it wasn’t a good experience,” she said.

Freeman isn’t alone. The pandemic rise in homelessness caused cities to try a variety of solutions – some temporary and others more lasting – to combat this crisis. Las Vegas turned parking areas into spaces for the homeless in 2020, while Denver created “safe outdoor spaces” for homeless individuals to have an enclosed, safe area to spend the night.

Atlanta was also inspired by other efforts across the country, including modular homes and tiny homes, but wanted something to quickly get people off the streets. Using shipping containers allowed for a four-month transformation to make them into homes, Mayor Andre Dickens said.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, right, speaks with residents and staff members at The Melody. (Austin Steele/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Transforming shipping containers has become a popular endeavor for cities across the country as they work to stunt homelessness, including in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which has one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the country.

In Atlanta, the initiative came from remnants of Covid-19. The state had used containers for makeshift ICU rooms during the pandemic and needed to find a new purpose for the eyesores.

“And that’s how this site was birthed, essentially,” said Cathryn Vassell, CEO of Partners for Home, which worked with the city on the project.

Vassell said the program aimed to help those who were chronically homeless, the most vulnerable people in the system. Tenants start with a 12-month lease, but the system provides permanent housing, meaning residents can stay as long as they like. Residents are asked to pay up to 30% of their income, if they have one, meaning they do not need to pay anything if they do not have a source of income.

The opening of The Melody marked the first 40 units in the city. The city hopes to open 500 additional units by 2025.

“It’s a way for us to help people while they’re experiencing homelessness to have dignity and humane conditions,” Mayor Andre Dickens said.

For Freeman, her favorite part of the day remains when she gets to open the door to her unit with her key – the physical proof this home is hers.

Sherlyn Freeman, a tenant at The Melody, shows the key to her unit at the complex. (Austin Steele/CNN via CNN Newsource)

She now hopes to go back to school and is thinking of pursuing a nursing career, where she’s able to help homeless individuals. Most of all, she’s excited to tell her story to others and inspire them to seek help.

“My goal is to tell people my story, to motivate them to get some help and seek the steps to not become homeless,” she said.

Over the years, the little pieces that made up Sherlyn – her favorite color, which used to be blue – have faded away in place of a need for survival. She hasn’t had the privilege of thinking about her favorite things for a long time.

But now, she’s beginning to carve out a path for herself again.

Read more:

Pittsburgh bridge should've been shut down years before 2022 collapse
The photographer who changed the way the world saw New York
Researchers ‘optimistic’ that manatees are making a comeback in Florida

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Report a Typo

Weather News

Weather News

A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows

Jul. 10, 2025
Severe Weather

Rounds of severe storms to rattle, drench central US

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Abandoned cars submerged by severe flooding in North Carolina

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Before-and-after pictures show devastation caused by Texas floods

Jul. 9, 2025
Severe Weather

Severe weather to rumble in the central US through the holiday weekend

Jul. 6, 2025
Weather News

Record sargassum seaweed piles up on Caribbean islands, Gulf

Jul. 2, 2025
Weather News

Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns an...

Jul. 2, 2025
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

AccuWeather Early

Hurricane Center

Top Stories

Trending Today

Astronomy

Heat

Climate

Health

Recreation

In Memoriam

Case Studies

Blogs & Webinars

Top Stories

Weather Forecasts

Texas Hill Country recovery, cleanup teams to face brutal July weather

13 hours ago

Weather News

State inspection before floods found Camp Mystic had emergency plan

18 hours ago

Weather News

Deadly flash flooding devastates wildfire-scarred New Mexico town

5 hours ago

Astronomy

1st full moon of summer to rise Thursday night

1 day ago

Weather News

Most Texas flood victims face devastation without flood insurance

15 hours ago

More Stories

Featured Stories

Health

How can families handle new anxieties around summer camp?

12 hours ago

AccuWeather Ready

Floodwater rising in your house? Do this

2 days ago

Weather News

Orcas are bringing humans gifts of food – but why?

11 hours ago

Weather News

Earthquake swarm detected at Mount Rainier, biggest since 2009

16 hours ago

Weather News

The US has a plan to breed millions of flies and drop them from planes

11 hours ago

AccuWeather Weather News How shipping containers in Atlanta became tiny homes for the homeless
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2025 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | About Your Privacy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

...

...

...