Frustrated that a location for the proposed homeless drop-in center has yet to be found, Orange County commissioners instructed county staff to be more aggressive during the July 26 meeting.
In the county’s effort to establish a drop-in location between Semoran Boulevard and Alafaya Trail in East Orlando, staff has identified and rejected more than 50 sites. All were either too expensive, too cumbersome to rehabilitate or too close to parks, schools or day care centers, which have voiced opposition to a nearby homeless center.
“Its hypocritical because when I was campaigning a year ago there was a surge to locate this drop-in center and a year later it hasn’t happened,” District 5 Commissioner Ted Edwards said. “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.”
It was two years ago that the county received an $800,000 grant for a structure and a $200,000 grant for equipment to create a homeless drop-in center, offering services such as occupational training, showers, medical, mental health and laundry to the chronically homeless. The center was a product of a 2006 University of Central Florida study on the homeless living in the woods between Semoran Boulevard to Alafaya Trail. 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.
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. She said staff is currently working on a property within the targeted area.
Commissioners said they will consider throwing in some county money so they have more purchasing options, 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.
Money matters
Mayor Teresa Jacobs requested staff to compile a list of all available properties in their target area, even those with prices over their budget, so they can be re-evaluated.
“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,” 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 $36,000 per person, which is an 80 percent reduction in services rendered.
The NIMBY factor
District 4 Commissioner Jennifer Thompson said since 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.
“We need to do something, and it might upset some people,” she said.
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.
“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.”
District 3 Commissioner Lui Damiani said every citizen he’s talked to about the drop-in center agrees that it’s a great idea but then balks at the idea of it being located anywhere near them.
“Everyone I talk to thinks it’s a good idea, but then they say, ‘Absolutely not in my backyard’,” he said. “It’s a very, very complex area. Everywhere we look is close to a park, a school or a day care center.”
“No matter where you put it, there are going to be complaints,” Edwards added.
Location, location, location
Tim McKinney, executive director of United Global Outreach (UGO), which has made improving the Bithlo community its mission, has been promoting bringing the drop-in center to Bithlo for months as part of CHC’s clinic, which is set to break ground this summer. 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.
Jackson said only 15 people out of the more than 400 surveyed during Orange County's Family Day held in Bithlo last November reported being homeless comparing to 88 percent of the 325 surveyed at a Project Homeless Connect held near Dean Road and East Colonial Drive in 2009.
“It (a Bithlo location) wouldn’t serve the target population the drop-in center was designed for,” she said. “We can’t have a drop-in center where 15 people show up each week. We need 100 a week to reduce the thousands of dollars per individual the county is spending.”
McKinney said this comparison is unfair, explaining that unlike Project Homeless Connect, the Family Day event was not meant to target the homeless population. He cited records from Orange County Public Schools and the Florida Department of Children and Families, 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.”