Orange County commissioners voted 5-1 to move toward demolishing the former Work Release Center on Kaley Street, a 57,000-square-foot building once considered for use as a homeless shelter. The action leaves the site’s future use unresolved: the county has no current plan for what would replace the structure.
The vote marks the latest turn for a site that has sat empty since the Orange County Work Release Center closed during the pandemic, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The building, located at 130 West Kaley Street in Orlando, was designed and built as a correctional facility, not a shelter, and the county’s work-release program now operates out of the jail instead. Orange County staff estimated that needed renovations, including a new roof, air conditioning, plumbing-leak repairs and electrical-code upgrades, would cost more than $20 million, a figure in the same range as the $21.5 million to $30 million repair estimate cited in an Orlando Sentinel editorial.
How the Shelter Plan Collapsed
The idea of turning the old facility into a shelter dates to October 2024, when Orange County proposed leasing the Work Release Center to Orlando for $1 a year so the city could open a 300-bed, 24/7 homeless shelter there, according to a statement from Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings posted on the county newsroom site. Under that proposed deal, Orlando would have fully funded upgrades and renovations while the county and city split ongoing operations and maintenance costs, with the Board of County Commissioners slated to discuss the agreement at its October 29, 2024, meeting. The arrangement grew out of a broader 2024 deal in which the county granted Orlando the right to fund renovations as part of an agreement to stop a planned annexation of thousands of acres of undeveloped Deseret Ranches land.
The 300-bed Kaley Street proposal faced neighborhood opposition, per the Orlando Sentinel. In March 2025, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced the city would not proceed with a 300-bed shelter there. The Central Florida Public Media reported the decision; the Sentinel’s reporting ties the city’s retreat to neighborhood opposition and pushback from nearby Orlando Health.
County Weighs a Government Complex Instead
The county is also examining whether the Kaley Street property could help reduce its reliance on leased office space. The Orange County Tax Collector, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections currently operate from leased buildings, and a county official presented a rendering of a possible eight-story building with a parking garage for county agencies on the site, per the Orlando Sentinel’s reporting. Sara Flynn-Kramer said the county intends to repurpose the property for another county use rather than sell it…