Beginning Wednesday, the city of Orlando and the nonprofit Christian Service Center will be providing overnight shelter and accommodations to a rotating group of homeless people through a city-funded program involving retrofitted Greyhound buses.
Modeled after a “Dignity Bus” program in Vero Beach, the city’s new bus program will offer shelter for up to 42 people per night on two Greyhound buses the city purchased and rehabbed for $175,000 each. The buses offer individual sleeping pods with a mattress, sheets, a light, a charging outlet and a curtain for privacy. They also contain a restroom and have air conditioning.
According to Eric Gray, CEO of the Christian Service Center, each bed costs about $33 per person, per night — just a fraction of what it would cost to jail a person for sleeping on public property instead. According to ClickOrlando, the cost of detaining a person in the local jail is about $140 per night…