GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Homeless people leaving the Gwinnett County jail will keep getting help with shelter, drug treatment and job training after commissioners approved another $250,000 Tuesday for a program United Way says no other metro county matches.
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The money goes to United Way of Greater Atlanta through the Gwinnett Reentry Intervention Program, or GRIP, a partnership with the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, Channel 2 Gwinnett County bureau chief Matt Johnson reports. Commissioners approved it without discussion as part of their consent agenda.
The funding comes from the sheriff’s Inmate Fund, which the office says pays for programs that benefit inmates directly.
“To date, over 8,000 people have been referred for services through GRIP,” Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office Chief Cleo Atwater told commissioners at their morning work session.
Under the agreement, deputies refer inmates from the jail, and United Way pays local groups to house them.
Protip Biswas, a senior vice president at United Way of Greater Atlanta, said going home is not always an option.
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“In their past oftentimes they might have burnt relationships,” Biswas said. “So the families and all are little hesitant to have this person come back.”
He said the program helps about 100 to 120 people a year and “there isn’t one as robust as this in the metro area,” though he worries rising rents and job cuts could hit former inmates hardest.
Inmates on work detail can earn certificates in food handling, laundry and animal handling.
Joey Stafford, the GRIP’s project coordinator, explained its approach in a 2025 interview.
“We consider it a hand up, not a handout,” Stafford said. “Our mission is to assist with a successful reentry and reduce that recidivism.”
Biswas said stricter rules won’t solve the problem, and he believes many people who leave jail with a home and a job would stay out.
“They paid their dues,” Biswas said. “Now we need to support them so they don’t come back to that situation.”
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