ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County staff are weeks away from revealing a plan to put a full-service homeless shelter on Goldenrod Road, near Colonial Drive, in the long-underserved east Orange County, where many homeless people have resided without help.
The plan for the 10-acre, county-owned property at 1602 N Goldenrod Rd calls for up to 150 beds, on-site food, laundry, and pet kennels, and 24/7 security, a briefing sheet obtained from county staff said.
It would serve both adult men and women described as “chronically homeless,” and would provide them with services like counseling, case management, health, and employment services.
Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe said the project has been in the works for several years, and the county was steering away from the controversial 300-bed concept that Orlando considered for Kaley Avenue.
That shelter was supposed to be a low-barrier shelter, meaning almost anyone needing a place to stay could gain access to stay there on an emergency basis.
Uribe said the Goldenrod property would have rules that clients (or guests, as they’re often referred to) would be subject to.
“Security is going to have to be a major thing,” she said. “There are going to be standards… You can’t live here for years and years and years. They’re looking at somewhere around 90 days.”
When pressed for details about how the program would run, Uribe said the staff members working on the project had goals but hadn’t get gotten to the details.
Her description of the plan for the facility sounded similar to the shelter run by Freddy Clayton on the other side of town.
The Orlando Union Rescue Mission’s shelter, on W. Colonial, houses close to 150 men. Access is tightly controlled. While some men are welcome to stay the night on a temporary basis, longer-term residents are required to have a job, obtain a high school degree, undergo regular drug testing and save 75% of their income, which can help them buy a used car and eventually a place of their own.
“It’s desperately needed,” Clayton said, of the county’s proposal. “It will be interesting to see if [the county] can design and implement a program that will make long term difference.”
Clayton said transportation wasn’t a big need for a facility with on-site services, especially one located on a bus line. He said the bigger issue in front of the county was setting the rules for the guests.
I believe the single biggest thing is a commitment to enforcing the policies and guidelines that you established,” he said. “If [a man] demonstrates to us that he doesn’t either want or doesn’t need our program, then we have to be able to let him – we call it resigning -- but fundamentally, it’s throwing him out… that’s a difficult thing, especially -- to be candid -- for government-run organizations to do.”
Clayton also spoke about gaining the community’s trust and engaging with neighbors early in the process.
The county has yet to speak to people in the neighborhood across the street from the site, several homeowners said.
They admitted most of the end of the neighborhood closest to the proposed shelter comprised of AirBnB-type rentals. There are also commercial buildings between the houses and the site.
“I worry about [neighbor response]. I will be very honest,” Uribe said. “Even though we’ve been discussing it for a while, it would have been great to let everyone know first, before they find out after.”
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