Rethink Homelessness

Before this comes to a close, please consider a gift to those who need your compassion to escape homelessness. We help aging seniors whose fixed income can no longer keep pace with the rising cost of living, veterans sleeping in the woods after having defended our freedom, young adults leaving foster care with no family and nowhere to turn, women fleeing domestic violence with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Your generosity today makes a greater impact than you may ever know. Please donate by clicking below.

Help end homelessness in Central Florida By Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, Inc.

As the Florida Legislature officially opens its 2025 session today, we send a huge thank-you to State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith for sponsoring legislation that would help citizens who DON'T have deep pockets and powerful lobbyists. We'll be watching the Homeless Persons Dignity Act (SB 1040), as well as the HB 685 from Rep. Jose Alvarez for Florida House District 46 for the "Conversion of Hotels into Residential Housing Act, and SB 584 from Senator Ileana Garcia for her Young Adult Housing Support bill. Together, these bills would provide more affordable housing, more housing support, and less discrimination against the people who need a hand up.

It will be 41 degrees in Central Florida tonight -- too cold to leave pets outside. Yet that's where an estimated 1,200 Central Floridians will be trying to sleep. This , help us provide the only thing that ends -- housing. Any amount helps.

Shout out to Seminole County FL Board of County Commissioners for their vote this morning to support our region's effort to create more low-barrier shelters. We need to have places for people to go with their pets, with their belongings, with their loved ones (whether they're married or not) so they don't have to live on the streets.

Please join us Monday, April 22, at the federal courthouse in Orlando to support humane, effective and PROVEN responses to people experiencing homelessness! !

The GAP There is a shortage of 7.3 million affordable & available homes for renters with the lowest incomes. Find out more. https://nlihc.org/gap

Sadly, the Florida Legislature has passed its anti-camping law -- aka the "Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping" bill (HB 1365). Starting October, it will force counties to ban anyone from living on public property -- UNLESS the counties set up an outdoor site specifically for our unsheltered homeless population.
That might sound like a worthy goal (we don't want people to have to live unprotected on the streets either), but because of the rigid requirements for establishing a designated site, the odds are great against any city or county actually being able to do it. And since, after Jan. 1, 2025, people will be able to sue cities and counties for "allowing" people to live on the streets -- even when there's no other choice -- we have every reason to believe that our unhoused citizens will either be arrested or continually rousted from wherever they try to lay their heads.
In any event, this bill will not help people resolve their homelessness, and it could cost taxpayers big money on law-enforcement, jail cells or -- should a county actually establish a camp -- the security and personnel to run it. The estimate for Orange County was $10 million the first year.
It's cheaper, more humane, and vastly more effective to simply house people.

Want to double your impact in fighting homelessness? Right now, all donations to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida are being matched, dollar for dollar, up to $7,500 total -- thanks to a generous anonymous supporter. So your $10 becomes $20, $50 becomes $100, etc. But the match ends at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31. Thanks for whatever you can do and to those who have already contributed... We can't do this work without you!

Help end homelessness in Central Florida By Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, Inc.

This is always a somber day for us as the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, as many of these individuals are clients we have known for several years. This year, we had been able to provide safe, long-term housing to at least 35 of the people remembered. There is some solace in knowing that, at least in their final weeks, months and sometimes years, they had a dignified place to call home. As a co-sponsor of the Homeless Memorial Service, our goal is that, one day, no one will die alone on our streets or in the woods. Health Care Center for the Homeless, Inc. Christian Service Center for Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida