Staff Editorial
The city of Daytona Beach is pushing forward with its plans to build a $6 million, 100-bed homeless shelter near the Volusia County Jail, located west of Interstate 95.
The First Step Shelter for homeless adults is behind schedule and desperately needed, but people throughout the community wonder whether the facility will adequately serve the community. A place to sleep for a time is a necessity, but without career services and a helping hand to get back on their feet, will the shelter give the homeless population what it needs in the long-term?
As Editor in Chief Pat Rice from the Daytona Beach News-Journal wrote last month, “We don’t just need a shelter. We need a place where the homeless can go to rehabilitate their lives and re-enter society.”
The shelter was supposed to be built and have its doors open a year ago and now, nearing the end of 2018, the city has not made much progress on the project. The new target is to have it open in June 2019.
Having the shelter located close to the county jail doesn’t seem like a coincidence to many. It is also five miles outside of the Daytona Beach city limits, making it inaccessible to some of the people who need it. Major hubs of homeless services such as the City Island Library and Salvation Army are also far from the new shelter site.
When the project was approved, the city and county voted on a budget of roughly $2.5 million. Costs have risen considerably and still no real progress is being made.
The money, however, is not the biggest problem. It is the back and forth and delays that keep people living in squalor for days, weeks and months that are turning into years. These people desperately need help between escaping the searing heat of Florida summers and chilly winter nights. The street isn’t safe or welcoming and many in the county are on the verge of homelessness.
There are an estimated 700 homeless in Volusia County, the lowest number Volusia and Flagler have seen on record. Jeff White, executive director of the nonprofit agency, Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless — which focuses on preventing and ending homelessness — warns that this could change easily because the county gets an influx of new homeless each year.
Reducing the number year over year by giving the homeless the help they need is the solution the community must strive for.
“At this point I think we have leveled off in terms of count, but we need to be aware that we could easily go in the other direction without continued funding, additional funding and increasing the effectiveness of the existing rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing programs and housing services that our local agencies facilitate,” said White in a News-Journal interview.
If the shelter does not offer career, medical and housing assistance to allow the less fortunate to move up in the world, it will not help anyone for more than a few nights. Some people are also turned off by shelters because many treat the homeless as inhuman.
For the shelter to be a success, the county needs to stick to a schedule and listen to the community’s concerns.