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Brookdale Resource Center director describes pandemic-era response and ongoing community support
Summary
Tamika Johnson, director of case management at Brookdale Resource Center, recounted the center’s first days during COVID-19, saying staff opened an overnight service, met local partners and helped people who had lost jobs or were struggling at home. She emphasized community turnout at the ribbon cutting and the center’s ongoing role.
Tamika Johnson, director of case management at the Brookdale Resource Center, told a public meeting that she was present on the center’s opening day and has worked there as it responded to pandemic-era needs. "My name is Tamika Johnson, and I'm director of case management at the Brookdale Resource Center," she said, noting the site was formerly the Brookdale Warming Center.
Johnson said early staff discussions included offering overnight care; "they started taking people in, and we took off from there just like a rocket," she said, and that she met two local colleagues, Spencer and Steve Bell, during those first days. She described the timing as significant: "You gotta remember that time, the time Brookdale opened, COVID had hit." Many people seeking help, she said, had lost jobs because of COVID and were facing sudden crises.
Johnson emphasized that the center’s clients were not uniformly people living on the street. "Everybody came through here wasn't on the street. It was people that was actually living in their homes and came to a situation that they couldn't handle," she said, urging empathy and broader support: "We need to realize that at any day, any hour, it could be us." She said Brookdale has served people from across Georgia and remained active five years after opening.
Johnson also pointed to community engagement around the center’s launch. She recalled a ribbon-cutting and said residents came out for the event, calling the opening "something for the community."
