Orlando Sentinel
On Monday, the Christian Service Center, a social service nonprofit in Orlando that offers daytime services for homeless people, is set to ink a $3 million agreement with the city for the project, which is based off of a mobile emergency shelter concept called the “Dignity Bus Model.” The concept, developed by the Vero Beach-based nonprofit the Source, involves the retrofitting of buses to include sleeping pods, storage compartments, restrooms, pet compartments and “comprehensive surveillance.” The Orlando City Commission is scheduled to approve the funding agreement on Monday during their regularly scheduled council meeting. The goal of the project is to offer a safe, legal place for people to sleep “with the goal of moving them expeditiously to permanent housing,” according to the city’s funding agreement.
The Christian Service Center requested the city reimburse them $350,000 for two former Greyhound buses that can fit a minimum of 39 sleeping pods. Once retrofitted to include beds, the buses will be parked at the Christian Service Center, next to the Inter & Co soccer stadium in Parramore, at night.
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Operational costs for the project, including sleeping accommodations and case management services, are estimated at about $1 million each year, totaling $3,092,446 over three years, according to the funding agreement. Not all of the money will be paid upfront. The project, over three years’ time, will receive capital funding available through the city’s Accelerate Orlando fund, a $58 million pot of federal American Rescue Plan Act money the city earmarked in 2022 specifically for projects to address the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Average rents in Orlando are up more than 30 percent since 2019, when the average one-bedroom apartment cost just about $1,000 per month . Today, rents are slightly lower than they were a year ago , on average. But for many in the region who didn’t see their wages or Social Security income rise as housing costs did, paying the bills has become an increasingly difficult task.
A point-in-time count conducted last year found a 105 percent rise in the number of people in the tri-county region over the year prior who lacked shelter. Altogether, volunteers counted 2,776 people who lacked stable housing . According to Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida — a nonprofit that conducted the count — there’s been a considerable rise specifically in older and elderly people who have been forced out of their homes…