ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s becoming more of a problem all over Central Florida that more and more people are homeless.
Celeste Claywell said that she is doing her best to keep everything together, but that her home has been on the streets of Orlando a lot lately.
“How sad. Because there are so many people without homes now,” Claywell said. “I’m probably going to just move out of Florida.”
The Homeless Services Network of Central Florida says that there are more than 1,600 homeless people in Orange County alone. People who live in shelters are counted in that number.
The group also says that the number of people living on the streets in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties has gone up by 75% since before the pandemic. In 2019, 336 people were living on the streets or in a car, but in 2019, there were 587.
On Monday, the city officials of Orlando showed off their three-year plan to reduce homelessness.
Part of a $58 million government grant will be used by the city to turn the old Ambassador Motel on the corner of Colonial Drive and Westmoreland into the Palm Gardens Apartments, which will soon have affordable housing.
“We have to figure out how to make the best use of the limited resources we have,” said Orlando Commissioner Bakari Burns. “I would argue that the best use would be to make sure we have affordable housing.”
Patty Sheehan, an Orlando City Commissioner, said, “I think we need to protect our housing authority property and make sure that when we redevelop them, we add more units.”
The city is also investing in partnerships with support providers like the Christian Support Center, the Coalition for the Homeless, and the Salvation Army.
“You can’t end homelessness; you have to work on it every day,” said Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando.
Dyer said that the three-year plan also tries to add more affordable homes, which is important because rents are going up.
The plan also includes trying to cut the number of people living on the streets by half, expanding services and facilities at shelters, working to add more programs like job training and rapid rehousing help, and continuing to make the streets cleaner and safer for everyone.
“The general accounting office says that when rent goes up by $100, the number of homeless people in our community will go up by 8% or 9%,” said Martha Are, the CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida and the Central Florida Coalition on Homelessness. “We want to get people into housing so we can help them as they struggle.”
