Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe and county staff have been planning a so-called housing navigation center to temporarily house those who are homeless and get them back on their feet.
Uribe spoke to about 70 people at a town hall meeting at the Goldenrod Recreation Center Monday evening, seeking their buy-in for the Goldenrod Village Housing Navigation Center.
“I refuse to call it a homeless shelter,” she said. “I call it a pathway back to permanent housing with dignity.”
The center's campus would be built on 5.15 acres of county property near East Colonial Drive. The address is 1602 N. Goldenrod Road.
It would have temporary housing for 150 people -- providing case management, employment help, educational training, physical and behavioral health services, and housing placement.
County Mental Health and Homelessness Division Manager Lisa Graham described "a structured professionally managed campus." Participants would not be simply released onto the streets in the morning -- but would go to jobs or school or stay on the campus.
At the meeting, some residents supported the idea while others submitted questions raising concerns about potential effects on property values, crime, safety and people loitering.
Susan Talana Harris is president of an area homeowners association -- the Belmont-Hanging Moss-Tiffany Acres Civic Association Inc.
"But I really think that it will be structured, so well managed," Harris said. "So actually it will help improve property values because it will help remove the homeless people in the encampments."
The center, which still needs County Commission approval, would take three or four years to plan and build.
Some $26 million in General Fund revenue is planned for the project. But a county spokesperson said in an email that the county has also applied for Federal Community Development Block Grant funding.
The most recent point-in-time homeless census -- from January 2025 -- found nearly 2,000 unhoused people in Orange County.
In describing the local picture of homelessness, Graham, the Orange County division manager, pointed to increased rental costs -- up 48% between 2020 and 2024 -- and a recent state law that essentially bans overnight camping on public property.
She said the county is currently in need of at least 750 more temporary shelter beds.
"Goldrenrod Village is the county's direct response to this gap," Graham said.
A second community town hall is planned for May 11 at the Goldenrod Recreation Center.
