Apopka city leaders and community organizers will meet Sunday to discuss the building of a much needed homeless resource center — and to find out if funding is coming.
As of now, the city has no homeless shelters or facilities for people in need.
If built, the resource center will serve as Apopka’s first overnight shelter, as well as a homebase to connect people with case workers, medical and mental health treatments and job searches, among other priorities.
Church leaders said Apopka city leaders have spent the last three years talking about funding a resource center and other solutions for the homeless, but nothing has happened.
The First Baptist Church of Apopka’s Next Step Ministries is one of the organizations advocating for the resource center. Every Monday, volunteers there help feed those in need. They also help with clothing, eye glasses, shoes, extra food bags, showers, even haircuts.
Next Step Director Michelle Faircloth said other local churches and organizations also step in and take turns helping, but they can only do so much without the resources of a dedicated service building.
“We give them a message of hope and try to help them, but they are getting their stuff stolen every week. They need driver’s licenses, they need social security cards, they need rehab and the right medicines.” Faircloth said. “We’ve been working on having a resource center, a shelter, something to help our folks get off the street and go to their next step in life.”
According to Faircloth, community members thought the city had allocated funding to build the center, but have since been getting “disheartening” news.
"I’ve gotten upset a lot of times over the last three years because we really need to help these people. They are people, just like you and me, and we have probably about 400 homeless people here in the city, and we have no place for them to go,” she said. “Now, we are here today, and nobody knows where that money went.”
Still, Faircloth said she is giving the benefit of the doubt to the city and hopes for the best. It is up to the Next Step Foundation board now to help figure out how to make the center happen, as they have been in contact with other organizations to find solutions.
Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson is part of this committee. In an email, he said he is still trying to track down the financial documents that would verify the resource center allocation.
“I still haven’t gotten the financial details. Our Finance Staff has been overwhelmed with the Budget Workshops, and they haven’t had a chance to dig into the issue,” Nelson said. “Losing your City Administrator to cancer midway through the Budget process has been a challenge.”
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
