The East Orlando Sun

It was the last straw. Joseph Carson had already been put out on the streets once in 2008 after a work accident shattered his hip, leaving him in the hospital for three months and in physical therapy for six. So when he returned from visiting his dying mother in New Jersey in March to find his Pine Hills landlord had evicted him, he was ready to throw in the towel.

He accidently headed east instead of west to Orange Blossom Trail, where he intended to buy the drugs he quit nearly two decades ago, and found himself in an East Orlando church parking lot. Seeing him visibly distraught, a worker there urged him to go to Woodbury Presbyterian Church, where he’s been receiving assistance from the church and Samaritan Resource Center, a mobile homeless service center that provides services ranging from food stamps and Medicaid help to free bus passes and cell phones.

Since that day the 53-year-old, who works as a janitor near the University of Central Florida but only brings home about $70 every two weeks after child support, has gone from living in his car to moving into a home where his five children, ranging from age 6 to 14, can visit.

“They gave me a lot of hope,” he said. “I’m struggling, but my head’s above water. Now I think anything’s possible if you don’t give up.”

SRC, which consists of eight volunteers, has been traveling to Woodbury on Mondays and New Covenant Church in Bithlo on Wednesdays, seeing about 60 people each week for almost a year. Although SRC is able to provide so much with limited resources, there’s a great need for the permanent homeless drop-in center Orange County received $1 million in grant money for in 2009.

Last month, frustrated that more than 50 locations have been identified and then rejected for the proposed center, Orange County commissioners told county staff to be more aggressive in their search.

Real estate woes

Every available location in the target area between Semoran Boulevard and Alafaya Trail, where a 2006 UCF study determined to have the densest homeless population, has been dismissed either because it was too expensive or because the county was afraid it would experience too much opposition from neighbors. Donna Wyche, Orange County Mental Health and Homelessness manager, said there are 80 to 100 camps with an estimated 500-700 people living in them in that target area.

“I don’t know how many buildings are boarded up along (State Road) 50, and we can’t find a building? If you can’t find it in this market, your search criteria are too high,” District 5 Commissioner Ted Edwards said.

Wyche said of the more than 50 properties staff has identified throughout the process, only eight or nine fit within budget and other criteria, such as proximity to schools. Now commissioners said they will consider more expensive properties, they will look at properties near parks and other institutions they avoided in the past and will continue to consider partnering with Community Health Centers’ shovel-ready clinic in Bithlo, lumping the drop-in center with that facility.

“I don’t want to give the impression that money is no object, because it is a precious resource. However, this has been going on for years, and there are costs associated with these people remaining homeless,” Mayor Teresa Jacobs said. “There’s a cost to doing nothing, and in this community, both homeless and the housed are all paying a price for the lack of action.”

Homeless Services Network executive director Cathy Jackson said a recent study found that housing 57 chronically homeless clients saved more than $2.1 million, or almost $37,000 per person, which is an 80 percent reduction in services rendered.

The county is currently considering several properties within the targeted area.

The NIMBY factor

District 4 Commissioner Jennifer Thompson said because the homeless are already living in the woods surrounding parks, the drop-in center could be located in a county park, such as Downey Park or Blanchard Park.

“I know we have to be sensitive, but my issue is that we have to be so sensitive that we’re not finding a site,” she said. “It’s not that we are sitting on it, it’s that we don’t want to get the community into an uproar.”

Thompson also suggested relocating Orange County Head Start and the ball fields currently located within the East Orange County Community Center so the drop-in center could go there. She said it might give both entities an opportunity for even better facilities. Wyche said folks from SRC are currently favoring this idea.

Chris Rorer, 39, became homeless after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he has lived in a tree fort in the woods along East Colonial Drive near Lake Pickett Road for several years.

“Most people don’t want us anywhere near them. They think we’re scum, but really, we’re no different than anyone else,” he said. “Until it happens to you, you’ll never understand or be able to sympathize.”

Location, location, location

In a letter to county commissioners, the SRC Board said that if the county cannot find a location near the target area by the end of summer, they are open to bringing the drop-in center to CHC’s clinic, which recently broke ground.

But county staff said this would be detrimental to the mission of the center, which is to help the chronically homeless.

The chronically homeless, those who are unsheltered for long periods of time, make up about 20 percent of Orange County’s 3,000 homeless but use 80 percent of its services. Homeless Services Network’s Jackson said most of Bithlo’s needy are precariously housed, meaning they’re one financial disaster away from becoming homeless, not chronically homeless.

“The request to move the center east of Alafaya Trail doesn’t square with the data from HSN and UCF, and it doesn’t reflect the work we do on the streets,” she said.

Tim McKinney, United Global Outreach executive director and Bithlo spokesman, cited Orange County Public Schools and the Florida Department of Children and Families records, saying there are more than 600 documented homeless people who live east of Alafaya Trail.

“I never wanted to get into a count — saying there’s more on this side than the other — but that’s what they’re making me do,” he said. “The grant says the money is for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. I’m not against helping the chronically homeless. I want to target that group; I want to get those people out of the woods. If they couldn’t find a place for the $1 million, that should have made the case for Bithlo.”

Bruce Clark, who became homeless two years ago after a hit-and-run left him with a shattered hip and knee and hefty medical bills, said as long as the drop-in center is somewhere on the east side, he’ll use it.

“We need something around here. I don’t mind if it’s near Alafaya or in Bithlo, I’ll get to it,” he said.

Rorer echoed this, saying he can ride his bike.

“I could walk in the winter and ride my bike in the summer. Either way, it’d be closer than downtown [Orlando],” he said.

Learn more

SRC is open from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays at Woodbury Prebyterian Church off of Woodbury Road in Orlando, which also offers a food pantry from 10 a.m. to noon, and Wednesdays at New Covenent Church in Bithlo, which also offers a food pantry at that time