ORLANDO, Fla. – Ask anyone working to reduce homelessness in Central Florida, and they’ll tell you: the pushback can be almost as tough as the problem.
Last year, plans to take an old Orange County facility on Kaley Street and turn it into a low-barrier shelter for homeless people were met with such organized resistance that the city of Orlando eventually pulled the project. The building is still empty.
[RELATED: Stories about homelessness in Central Florida]
For those who try to help homeless people in Orlando, the loss of the shelter was a blow.
“It made us realize that we needed to do a lot more community education on the reasons people become homeless and the best way to help them,” said Martha Are, CEO of Homeless Service Network of Central Florida. “We’re not discounting concerns that neighbors will naturally have — concerns that are legitimate — but we know we need to work more closely with the public to develop understanding and solutions."
[WATCH: At Orlando service, doves and tears for 136 homeless people who died in 2025]
In a presentation in September, Orange County officials touted a number of programs to get people off the streets and into housing – from transitional housing to shelter buses to eviction prevention programs to keep pregnant mothers from ending up on the streets at all.
But homeless advocates will tell you they face significant challenges still, including overcoming an 800-bed gap in shelter space.
In the wake of the SoDo shelter fiasco, advocates stepped up efforts to deal with another gap – an apparent gap between public perception of homeless people and the reality.
Are’s office began a campaign to get people to sign up to be advocates for shelter spaces to government officials, at Yes 2 Shelter and Housing.com.
[RELATED: Debunking 8 myths about homelessness in Central Florida]
In East Orange County, Zeynep Portway with Samaritan Resource Center, was hosting monthly town hall meetings, open to the public, to talk about homelessness in the community.
[WATCH: Orange County town hall discusses what would make residents open to a homeless shelter]
“(SoDo shelter) was also a great reminder that we, as service providers, must engage the communities that we are working in,” Portway said. “Though we started the Town Hall meetings before the SoDo issues, we wanted to hear from the community we work in what they would be in support of. I think creating awareness of the situation and creating advocates with the residents and businesses will make them more likely to be our allies.”
Meanwhile, News 6 and a dozen media partners were banding together to examine the impact the state’s public camping ban was having on efforts to combat homelessness.
News 6 tracked the public camping arrests by analyzing Orange County Clerk of Court records. We found 293 arrests related to the camping ban in Orange County cities alone in 2025, including 284 by the Orlando Police Department, seven arrests in Ocoee, and one arrest each in Apopka and Winter Park.
But soon, we were broadening our lens.
We told stories about the people living in camps, and what happens when the camps are cleared. Stories about enduring the summer heat while living on the streets. Stories about the thousands of Central Florida school children considered to be homeless in the public school districts.
And we told stories about the groups seeking new ways to get people off the street, from hotels to buses, and how the lack of affordable housing was making the problem worse.
We also asked a question to our viewers and readers: What would be needed for you to support a homeless housing project, like a shelter, in your community?
We received dozens of responses, ranging from security and wrap-around services to concerns about CEO salaries and taxpayer funding.
Then we took those responses to the experts, some of Central Florida’s biggest homeless outreach leaders.
Read the comments and questions from our audience, and how our homeless advocates responded, below. Where possible, we included the full response. Some have been edited for length.
NOTE: We’ve included the names of viewers and readers who submitted responses when allowed. Others asked that their names not be published.
Here’s the question we asked again:
What would be needed for you to support a homeless housing project, like a shelter, in your community?
“...Make sure they are treated with dignity. That they are safe, have medical care while there. Rehab if they need it. Counseling, security and a safe place to stay. If some security is needed to keep things calm and have local area residents feel better then perhaps have some.” — Amy Degenstein
Eric Camarillo, president and founder of SALT Outreach: “You know, there’s a lot of mention of security in this one, and I totally agree with security. I think that’s needed. We actually, at SALT, we have what we call safety and support specialists, so we train them to be trauma-informed and to know how to interact with the unhoused in a way that’s compassionate, but that also protects both our clients and our guests and our staff. So yeah, security’s definitely important, and honestly, I mean, I love the thinking in this. We need to provide wraparound services. We need be comprehensive in our approach, right? And so providing as many services as we can in a shelter is gonna help our guests to be successful."
Zeynep Portway, executive director of the Samaritan Resource Center: “We already are providing supportive services in the shelters that are around. We just don’t have enough shelters here in Orlando. East Orlando has no shelter, no beds here, so anyone who is experiencing homelessness, who’s out in their car or on the streets or in the woods in East Orlando, really has no place to go and no options.
“Any shelter or transitional living facility that would be built here would come with wrap-around services like mental health counseling, housing, eviction prevention, diversion services, which means family reunification, rehabilitation for those who are struggling with substance use disorders. And training, job training, employment help, all of that would come with any type of transitional housing that would be on-site or anywhere nearby.”
[WATCH: Homeless advocate responds to viewer comments: Zeynep Portway, Samaritan Resource Center]
“There would have to be multiple shelters (four or more in different areas of the County) sharing the load and onsite daytime programs for the residents of the shelter, and the ability to get showered and shaved onsite. People don’t want a repeat of the downtown experience of a single or cluster of shelters together concentrating the population for a place to sleep and then kicking them back out to the streets in the morning. There should also be an allowance or voucher clients can earn by completing “get your life back on track” tasks, so they don’t have to beg on the streets for $10 nightly charge." — Jim Callahan
Camarillo: “I love the micro-shelter idea. I think right now our community is actively working on trying to do more of a micro-shelter approach. I could see how just one big shelter for 300 people versus maybe 10 shelters with 30 people. I could see how that could help not only provide more access to people in different communities. But yeah, a bigger shelter could be harder to manage. You know, the micro shelters are easier to manage, so I actually agree with that approach. And you know, soon SALT will be involved with some partnerships and some of that as well...
“I think one of the things that we found when it comes to housing retention is when someone has experienced homelessness for a little while, we found that people sometimes would much rather be on the street with their friends than at home by themselves, right? Providing community, daytime programs, I think is important in helping people to be successful. And having vouchers for people, yeah, giving people rewards for completing tasks is something that I think different communities are experimenting with. Like once they hit a certain goal, there’s some kind of maybe a small financial reward or some type of reward to help them and continue that motivation, especially with the chronically homeless.”
Eric Gray, executive director of the Christian Service Center: “So I think he’s right. Rather than building a large 500-bed shelter in Washington, D.C., a number of years ago, they built five 100-bed shelters in each of the five wards within the District of Columbia. And it worked out really well. Each of the five shelters is very different. They’re very unique. They fit in with the community. You would never know that they’re there. One of them just looks like an apartment complex that’s right next to American University on the north side. Another one is in Georgetown. It’s above some retail stores. You would never know that it’s there. And yeah, there would need to be some daytime services, things like showers and laundry, but all the basic things you would have if you were living in a regular apartment complex, you know, place to do your laundry and a place to take a bath.”
[WATCH: Homeless advocate responds to viewer comments: Eric Gray, Christian Service Center]
“Are they already living in Florida or just show up in winter? I saw a considerable amount of homeless people in downtown Orlando. After talking to a few, I realized most were from Northern states, which many go back to in summer.” — Viewer
Martha Are, executive director, Homeless Services Network of Central Florida: “Our work in the community does not reflect that observation. What we know is that most people who are experiencing homelessness have already been living in this area. We do know that sometimes people come to this area, but it’s usually either for a job or for family, but not to live on our streets. And the data kind of across the country is pretty consistent that people experiencing homelessness really gravitate to home and they gravitate to where they have the most support systems to help them through this very traumatic experience. So it can happen, but it is not the preponderance.”
“By them not allowing sex predators to live there. Only seniors and veterans.” — Viewer
Gray: “So I would understand not wanting to have anybody who’s a sexual offender living near me and my children as well, but I think you have to remember that the number of people who might have a sexual offense, not even a predator offense, but just a sexual assault offense of any kind, amongst the population of people experiencing homelessness is extremely low. And so I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that you really have to worry about too often. I think what most people don’t understand about contemporary or modern homeless shelters is that you wouldn’t know that they’re shelters. There’s no signage around them that says, you know, it’s a shelter. It looks like an apartment building that you would see anywhere.”
“300 sq. small hurricane-proof shelters, with tie-down in concrete.” — Brianna Budd
Portway: “Yes, I mean, all of that, I’m in favor of anything that’s gonna give people stable housing. The issue we run into is zoning or permits or not in my backyard. So if the community we live in is okay with putting tiny homes or small houses or whatever else they’re calling it. In their backyard or let the community be zoned for it and supportive of it, I think those could all work."
“What would be needed? Nothing, but build them like you would build any home. Concrete block, decent places, not shabby and I wouldn’t mind it being in my neighborhood.” — Lisa Sorice
Gray: “Yeah, I think that’s the right perspective. We don’t want to build anything that is lower quality. It doesn’t really work out in the long run. You want to invest in structures that are going to add value to your community.”
“Assurances that the project will have both local and state involvement, as well as a commitment of services to support and protect both participants and the community. The shelter needs strong leadership that provides more than just basic needs and includes goals and objectives toward addressing the issues and improving the situation.” — Todd St. Louis
Camarillo: “I do think that there should be, there could be an element of state and federal involvement. I do believe this, though, I do, that there isn’t a blanket approach to homelessness in every area. I think each area should have a customized, strategic approach to the unhoused in that area. So, homelessness in Central Florida looks different than it might look in Miami or in Tampa. Or in another state. So state and federal involvement, if they’re able to partner with the local communities and with local organizations in attacking the homelessness issue in the way that it’s meant to be tackled in that area, I think that’s totally, that would be a great idea.”
[WATCH: Homeless advocate responds to viewer comments: Eric Camarillo, SALT Outreach]
“More elite homeless men overseeing the project. My opinions being heard.” — Viewer
Camarillo: “We believe lived experience is important in informing decisions and we actually have that. We have people on our team at one point, 20% of our team had lived experience of homelessness. We have a board for youth and young adults that have lived experience to help inform decisions on programs. So yeah, I totally believe that including the voice of people that have previously experienced homelessness to help inform decisions of the program is necessary. So I totally love that idea, love that comment.”
“The infrastructure to support homeless housing, grocery stores, farmers’ markets. Greedy landowners and greedy upscale developers to keep their hands off the land.” — William Sorice
Camarillo: “So I think that’s an interesting idea. I do think that as a community, we need to be able to build our community in a way that can be successful for all citizens. That includes even our unhoused neighbors. You know, having better transportation, public transit. Having more healthy food options for people that are maybe in the lower income bracket. Just providing more opportunities for people to be successful. I mean, that’s needed. Yeah, the community, we can’t just plant a shelter somewhere in a community and the community just turns a blind eye to it. I think we need to work together as a whole.”
Portway: “I think we could look at the options for building communities where you have tiny homes or RV parks or anything like that, instead of having one building and build the community around it, where you’ll have farmers markets, where you will have grocery stores, where you have employment opportunities. There are other cities and states around the country who have done those models and it works. Building community works when you come to housing those who are homeless."
“Safe services for women and trans unhoused people.” — Viewer
Portway: “Yes, we need it. It’s a good idea. There are never enough services for women, children, or those who identify as trans.”
“Supervised inpatient facility with mandated drug rehabilitation for those evaluated to need it.” — Betsy Haddad
Are: "There’s no doubt that our region does not have as many inpatient drug and mental health services as we need. And there are unfortunately too many times when people who are experiencing homelessness who are struggling with substance use disorders or struggling with mental health issues are looking for that type of support and just aren’t able to access it because it’s not available. And so there’s undoubtedly the need for those types of programs that can help people who have serious mental illness, or substance use disorders and who need that type of inpatient support."
[WATCH: Homeless advocate responds to viewer comments: Martha Are, Homeless Services Network of Central Florida]
“A plan to empower the homeless to get out of their situation such as acquiring employment, training, financial education, etc. I don’t want my tax dollars to fund them for the rest of their lives.” — Luz Fa
Are: "So established programs and any potential new shelters that are operating in the community are absolutely gonna focus on whatever it takes to help people reach their maximum level of self-sufficiency. And so again, that might be different for a senior who’s in their late 60s and their 70s and 80s, where employment is not the ultimate goal. And a very different strategy for someone who’s 18, just leaving foster care, and needs more support and job training, and accessing employment. And so the goal is always for these programs to work with people, to help them get where they need to be."
Gray: “Yeah, I think that’s another really common perception, and in some of it, it’s a misperception. We’re not paying for people for the rest of their lives. They really only exist in one instance, and that would be for usually elderly adults that would no longer work again, that have some type of debilitating illness, mental health or physical health or both, and it’s cheaper for us to put them in a small efficiency apartment, than to have them in and out of the ERs or in and out of jail or in out of other services.
“And so we found that not only is it a cost savings, it’s a significant cost savings. We’re talking about like a six-to-one cost savings, and we’re only right now housing — it’s about 1,600 people in the greater Central Florida area at that level, and the challenge that we have right now is that the federal government is indicating that that entire program is at risk. That’s 1,600 people who are in the worst possible condition you can imagine, that are going to be out on the streets because they’re kind of falling to this weird misconception that we’re paying for people for the rest of their lives.”
“Mental health programs are a HUGE start. We have cut so many, starting at community to state-level support. The next step is community resources like education, housing, job placement. Also better VA assistance across the board but leads back to mental health as well.” — Rese Hornstein
Portway: “Yes, all of the above. I agree with all of it. We do need more funding for mental health services. Florida is, I believe, the 49th state out of 50 in their investment in mental health services, mental health funding.
“There are resources for veterans, there are probably more resources for veterans than civilians at this time. We have an easier time housing veterans because of the VA investment in homeless veterans and services for homeless veterans. How that’s going to shake out as we have funding cuts throughout the federal government, I don’t know, but right now the VA provides wraparound services and funding for housing, which is why they have been successful in lowering homelessness among the veteran community.”
“It must be a transitional program. I am not going to help someone who says that they just want to be homeless because they don’t want to deal with adulting. They can go and find wherever they need to be.
“But if it’s a person who has a drug addiction, and they are ready to make a change, then their transition would be getting clean from drugs. Or alcohol or whatever their addiction may be. They should be willing to take any classes that would be offered to them better. They should be willing to work with employment services to get a job. That’s what it would take.” — Karen Berman
Camarillo: “Karen, I think that there are many people experiencing homelessness right now that want to end their homelessness. There’s an epidemic of that. We just don’t have the permanent housing. We don’t have enough affordable housing for people to live in right now.
“I mean, just today, you know, we have a mom with two teenage daughters that are sleeping in their car. She’s working a job and she’s not making enough money to live in a place, right? She wants to get off the street, but we don’t have room in our shelters right now. So I totally agree. We need to have people in shelter that are willing to move forward, that want to move forward, that have the drive to move forward.
“There are some people that maybe are not ready, and that’s OK. I don’t believe anyone should be forced. But I do think that we need to make sure that we’re reserving space for people that are ready. And if there’s an addiction and we have people, there’s a small percentage of people that we serve that struggle with addiction. We create that relationship, we build trust, we show compassion, we show love, and after that, when they’re ready to give up their addiction, we get them to a detox facility, right?
“We just had a guest we were serving for four years, and finally he’s like, you know what? I’m done with this. We got him to a detox facility. He came back, we got him a job. He ended up making enough money to move out and live on his own. He’s off the street now, right? That takes time, that takes compassion, that takes building trust and relationship. And maybe four years ago, he would be taking up a bed at a shelter. But I do agree that prioritization should be for our most vulnerable in the community."
“Rules - time in, no alcohol, no non-prescription drugs, must be working or seek work, part of their salaries go to shelter, DAILY drug testing.” — Jim Missett
Are: “People experiencing homelessness are quite varied and what’s ideal is having programs that can meet the unique needs of the people who are residing there. And so how we structure a program for families with children needs to be different than how we structured a program that’s working with people over the age of 70. And so what kind of program rules and what kind of... operating protocols, how the shelter operates, what the hours are, what they’re encouraging people to do, really needs to be tailored to the specific population that we’re working with. So victims of human trafficking are likely to need something different than our seniors and our seniors likely need something differently than people who are struggling with mental illness and people with mental illnesses need something different than a six-year-old.”
“Stop dictating when people are allowed to come and go when they live at a shelter, because that prevents them from taking many jobs - since they may not have predictability in their schedule, given overtime or longer bus rides. Forcing them to be in by 7:30 p.m. eliminates a lot of jobs.” — Douglas Coleman
Are: “Again, we need programs that are very specific to the needs of the individuals who are there. And so, when we have people increasingly who are experiencing homelessness solely because they just cannot afford the increasing rents in our community. They may already be working. They may be between jobs and actively looking for work. And you’re right that many times, second shift jobs, third shift jobs actually pay better. And so if somebody can get one of those jobs and have the ability to sleep someplace during the day, then they can save up their money faster and move out into permanent housing faster. And so the flexibility and how a program operates so that it can meet the unique needs of the people that need those services is always a healthy thing in the community and in those programs.”
“Non-taxpayer funding.” — Matthew Harrison
Camarillo: "When we talk about non-taxpayer funding, right? For a shelter. That’s great. I think in an ideal world, I mean, even, I think I speak for a lot of nonprofits, there’s uncertainty with government funding, right? Raising money in other ways, through corporations, individuals, foundations, I think that’s ideal, right?
“The reality is, we just don’t have that kind of support right now. But for me personally, speaking as a taxpayer myself, I don’t mind that some of my money is going to help our unhoused neighbors because there are a lot of circumstances that happen with people living unhoused right now that are out of their control and many, many people and probably people you know yourself either know someone experiencing homelessness or are one or two paychecks away from it.”
“Transparency with the money and not paying the head honcho hundreds of thousands.” — Paul Callow
Are: “Agreed that transparency is super important. Organizations that receive, especially those that receive public funds, are required to be transparent with their funding. They’re required, non-profits are required, to submit documents annually about their funding as well as about the salaries that various staff people are receiving. And so that kind of transparency should be available with any nonprofit that the community wants to support.”
“The homeless live in tents and are on drugs and/or severe mental illness. It would be destroyed immediately. Let it go. They should be placed in mental institutions or work programs.” — Patricia
Portway: “We don’t have enough mental health institutions to place them into. We don’t have enough mental healthcare services to help those who are severely mentally ill. Some folks who are mentally ill can still live a normal life and sustain themselves and go to work and pay their rent, and pay the bills with assistance, with the right case management. Everybody else, yes, we need more services, and it requires more funding... And then arresting them and putting them in jail is not really solving the issue because then they get out and there’s still no place to go.”
Gray: That is not only the most common type of concern that I hear out in the general public, it’s also the most concerning because none of it’s true. All of our science shows that people experiencing homelessness are no more likely to be severely mentally ill than the rest of the general population. They’re also no more likely to be addicted to a substance than the general population, so certainly there are people that are living on the streets who have severe mental illness, and we have clients here that are that way. You can’t categorize everybody experiencing homelessness as mentally ill because you’re wrong. It’s roughly one in five adults experiencing homelessness are struggling with mental illness, but that’s the exact same percentage as the rest of the United States of America. About 19% of adults in the United States are struggling with addiction, and that’s been the case now since the 1920s, and it’s the same percentage amongst the homeless population.”
“I support moving it to someone else’s community, not mine. Our property values are nose-diving as it is.” — Anass Rhammer
Are: “The research is that property values are increasing very consistently. It’s part of the reason why rents are going up in our region is because property values are going up and that’s part of why we have such a housing affordability crisis.”
Just a way to get involved. I live in Winter Springs FL, just outside of Orlando FL — Viewer
Are: “There’s a lot of ways to get involved, whether it’s volunteering, financially supporting, going to public meetings, letting your elected officials know that you support this type of program. All of those are effective ways to help.
You can always reach out to us at info@hsncfl.org, and we’ll help direct you.