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ORLANDO, Fla. – The city of Orlando announced its dropping plans to open a large homeless shelter in Orlando’s SoDo district.
The announcement to drop the shelter plans comes after the city conducted an assessment to determine if the facility was viable while exploring ways to work with the community and businesses to address homelessness.
As part of the agreement, the city would have been able to lease the vacant space in the Work Release Center on West Kaley Street to the city for $1 per year for seven years.
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On Monday, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the city determined the space to be “not feasible”.
The plans for shelter drew pushback from dozens of residents during a February town hall meeting. Under a new state law, cities and counties must provide homeless services, but many residents argued they are concerned about what a shelter would do to their property values.
They also claimed the city of Orlando wasn’t being transparent ever since the city and Orange County entered into an agreement establishing the shelter plan.
In a statement, Mayor Dyer expressed gratitude to the Orlando City Council and Commissioner Patty Sheehan for their efforts, as well as residents who have shown support.
“Each night in our community, there are nearly 800 people who have no alternative to sleeping outside, in a park or under a bridge. There are many stereotypes about these individuals: they’re drug addicts, criminals or people who simply don’t want to work.
I can tell you that these assumptions are simply not true.
A few weeks ago, I joined volunteers from across our community to interview those experiencing homelessness as part of this year’s annual Point in Time Count survey. We asked them questions about where they sleep, as well as about their health and well-being. Their answers debunk many of the myths that persist about the homeless.
They are fathers who’ve lost their job and their identification, spouses who unexpectedly lost their partner and primary source of income. They are our neighbors who can no longer afford their rising rent despite having a job. I personally interviewed a young woman in her early 20s with a high-risk pregnancy who cannot find shelter simply because she wants to stay with her unmarried partner.
Every one of those individuals are people just like us with their own stories, challenges and goals. They are people who need a safe place to rest their head at night and access to services to get them back onto their feet.
Over the last several years, the City of Orlando has researched potential shelter sites throughout the area to meet this need. Most recently this included a partnership with Orange County to assess a vacant corrections facility just south of downtown. Unfortunately, we have determined that this location is not feasible.
But we can’t give up. Homelessness can’t just be someone else’s problem. It’s not a challenge we can simply push away out of fear. We must address it and offer support to the unsheltered, together.
The City of Orlando will continue to work with our regional partners, businesses, community groups and residents to find solutions to meet the needs of those experiencing homeless. This includes our ongoing funding and initiatives like Accelerate Orlando. Through a new program, 407 Connect, we hope to connect more than 400 people to permanent housing over the next three years through custom-fabricated buses that will provide safe overnight shelter and access to day services for 40 individuals at a time.
Addressing homelessness is one of our community’s most complex challenges. Thank you to the Orlando City Council for their willingness to pursue bold strategies to meet the needs of the unsheltered population, especially Commissioner Patty Sheehan for her leadership in listening to the concerns of residents in her district as we evaluated the Kaley Street shelter option. I’m also grateful for the many residents who offered their support to work alongside us to address this complex challenge.
I know Orlando is a strong, compassionate community that can support those in need. To get there will require residents from throughout the region to see past the myths about homelessness and say yes to offering shelter and hope to our community’s most vulnerable.”
Mayor Buddy Dyer, City of Orlando
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