It’s about noon on a Saturday, and Bettina Grzeskowiak is doing what she does every week.
She’s driving a 15-foot moving truck through a 17-mile stretch of hotels off U.S. Route 192, West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, in Kissimmee.
She’s honking the horn in the tune of the first song she ever learned on the flute as a young girl in Germany. It’s her signature horn.
The long-term residents at the hotels here know it well. It’s become like music to their ears. It means help has arrived — groceries, clothing, hygiene items, books, even bicycles and toys.
Children run out, screaming, laughing and waving at Grzeskowiak. They’re excited to see her. She can barely hold back tears when she sees them chase her truck, some of them on bare feet. When they reach the truck, they ask to help out.
Grzeskowiak knows their struggles firsthand. At one point she, too, was homeless and still shuffles to make ends meet. Still, she decided nearly four years ago to start the nonprofit Embrace of Celebration.
She says her goal is to take some of the pressure off the shoulders of the working families who are burdened by the costs of living in hotels long term.
“Sometimes people say that homeless people are out on the streets, that they don’t work, but these are families that are working hard and live in hotels because they just can’t find affordable housing,” Grzeskowiak said.
Meeting people where they are
The way Grzeskowiak put it, most of these families and individuals are low-income workers who have either been priced out of the rental and home buying markets or have been through catastrophic life episodes that turned their lives for the worse — loss of income, drop in credit score, evictions — and are now forced to work two, sometimes three jobs to live in hotels.
According to Osceola County School District, as of Tuesday, April 15, officials have identified nearly 900 children living in hotels long term, so far this year. That is 100 more than reported two months ago.
Shawn Gage is the owner of a financial services company in Celebration who volunteers at Embrace. He met Grzeskowiak years ago and is inspired by her story. He has since become her unofficial spokesman.
“Inflation is real,” Gage said. “Things are more expensive than they used to be. There are people that are out there right now, they're cutting back on things like toilet paper and toothpaste, and they're beginning to lose hope. She recognized that and started giving out the things that really matter to them.”
Gage said the difference between Embrace and other organizations is Grzeskowiak, although she hates to take credit.
“She’s a very humble soul; she does not like the spotlight, but she has an incredible story,” he said. “She knows how to talk to these people because she came from dealing with a lot of the same issues that the people she's now serving are dealing with. It’s blossomed into these relationships with them — they really trust her.”
A journey down a long, hard road
Upon coming to the U.S. in the 90s, a young Grzeskowiak and her husband struggled for housing amid a tumultuous relationship, fueled by substance use problems and domestic abuse. Once divorced, the single mom began cleaning houses for a living to provide for her son.
“I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have no child support or anything else,” she remembered.
Lacking a car, Grzeskowiak often rode her bicycle to gigs, rain or shine.
“I had to take my own cleaning supplies, so I would carry everything, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the lightning… Sometimes with a vacuum in my hand,” she recounted laughing.
The 52-year-old said her lived experiences are why she’s passionate about helping the working poor.
“I’ve never missed a weekend. I’m out here every Saturday,” Grzeskowiak said.
Grzeskowiak said she hopes she can one day dedicate herself to Embrace full time. For now, she cuts herself $3,000 a month, and when she isn’t loading and unloading thousands of pounds of goods for people, she still cleans houses.
Delivering goods at hotels, a sweaty Grzeskowiak can sometimes barely move because she spends her Friday mornings picking up nearly 8,000 pounds of groceries and goods from donors.
“I mean, it's hard work. Of course, it's very hard work to do,” she said.
Recently, she said she was able to contract another woman to help load goods each Friday. Another woman comes in for a few hours one day a week to help with admin work. Grzeskowiak is the only Embrace employee on staff. The rest is volunteer-based.
An embracing community is key
However, the name Embrace means to bring the community together, and hers has stepped up.
The development company One Stop Housing rents Grzeskowiak ample office space for just $1 a year at the Backlot Apartments in Kissimmee — an old hotel-turned-affordable-housing-units. That space serves as a neighborhood food pantry, storage, and a central office for Embrace where Grzeskowiak can connect to people and do case work.
Although One Stop Housing is a for-profit affordable housing developer, CEO Mark Vengroff said they don’t use government subsidies or tax cuts. He said he shares Grzeskowiak’s vision of making affordable housing available to people who just need a break to catch up.
“What I get out of it is knowing my tenants have resources that will help them thrive. Bettina is amazing. I’ll do anything I can to help her,” Vengroff said.
Celebration also provides space, allowing Grzeskowiak and volunteers a room at the Town Hall for one hour a week to gather and sort goods every Saturday morning at 10. Then, at 11, dozens of volunteers meet with Grzeskowiak at a local church to prepare meals, bag produce, baked goods, and non-perishables, and then load the packages and goods into the new Embrace truck, all to the tune of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson songs. Grzeskowiak plays 80s music to keep it fun.
A handful of them stick around for another hour or two to help deliver the items to the individuals at the hotels, but delivering the goods goes into the evening hours. Eventually the helping hands dwindle, until it’s just her left. And as the area’s housing crisis grows, so does Embrace, and so does the work.
Gage said Grzeskowiak needs more support.
“As you grow, you have these growing pains,” he said. “She literally hurts herself.”
The results have been far-reaching
Last year, Embrace was awarded Second Harvest’s Osceola County Agency of the Year and, last month, Grzeskowiak was recognized as an honoree by the city of Kissimmee.
Eventually, she said, she wants to grow Embrace into a resource center that can help people with skills training and job placement, but she wants to grow it organically. For now, her main return investments come from the people she’s helped, such as Alma Luz Castro — a single mother of three who’s been battling homelessness since the pandemic.
Castro said it was Grzeskowiak’s help and her own tenacity that got her family to where they are now. Grzeskowiak connected her to resources, while Castro and her daughters learned to help each other. Today, Castro said she attends Ana G. Méndez University for psychology, just started a job as a bus driver, and was able to secure an apartment.
“I’ve been bouncing from hotel to hotel for three years, while improving myself. Thanks to (Grzeskowiak), my daughters are flourishing, and we have grown as a family,” Castro said.
By the time Grzeskowiak is done each Saturday, dusk is beginning to set. Her hair is messy, her round cheeks flushed, and she’s worried about her appearance. She’s also emotionally drained. The thought of the children brings tears. “You see the children how they run, how they love to help. It's so nice. Sometimes I wish I could come more. One of them asked me, ‘How many nights do I have to sleep before you come back?’” She said, trying not to cry again.
And yet Grzeskowiak smiles the same big smile she’s held on all day.
“I love doing it because I know that we can make a difference, but I wish I didn’t have to do it.. but there is a big need,” she said.
As she gets in her van to drive home she says she’s looking forward to having a tea and kicking her feet up, before the work starts back up again.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
