A Central Florida non-profit says the number of homeless people it has helped find stable homes has gone up.
“We’ve housed more people in the first four months of this year than I did all of last year,” said Eric Gray, Executive Director of the Christian Service Center. “We’ve housed more people in the first four months of this year than I did all of last year.”
The Christian Services Center is just one of the numerous groups in Orange County, Seminole County, and Osceola County that are attempting to provide housing for individuals who are without it.
The facility said that they assisted 92 individuals in getting off the streets in the previous year. However, in only the first three months of this year, they have assisted more than 140 people.
Gray said a lot of things are coming together to make this possible, including better collaboration between all the local groups that touch homelessness.
But he said a lot of the increased success is because of funding they received and a renewed push from the city of Orlando.
The center received $600,000 from the city for hotels, rent, and down payments for new apartments. Gray said the city also made new funding available to house homeless families, focusing on the Parramore and Holden Heights Kidz Zones. He said its helping to make a difference, but there’s more work ahead.
“Even with the success we’re having, this is a drop in the bucket,” Gray said. “This is a drop in the bucket.”
According to him, the number of people living on the streets is still at a record high, in part because rent has become so much more costly and there is a shortage of affordable accommodation.
