Fire at Orlando homeless shelter strains region’s resources
A fire at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida’s men’s shelter will likely leave the facility uninhabitable for about 10 days, creating a temporary strain on the region’s available shelter beds.
The Wednesday fire sparked up in the dorms of the Terry Avenue facility which houses about 237 men who are experiencing homelessness. The fire suppression system doused the flames but left a few inches of water across the facility, including in the kitchen, leaving it closed as well, CEO Allison Krall said Thursday.
The kitchen serves meals daily to the men, as well as about 200 women and children at the Coalition’s Center for Women and Families. Krall said the men’s shelter may partially reopen before it’s back to full capacity.
“Our hope is that at some point we’re able to open some of it in advance of that,” Krall told reporters gathered on the campus.
Men housed at the shelter have since been scattered to nearby Shiloh Baptist Church, All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park, the Orlando Union Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army. Living arrangements are taken care of for the next few days, she said.
On Thursday hazard mitigation crews were on site assessing the damage, while Orlando Police and Fire officials investigated the cause of the blaze. While it’s unclear what started the fire, Krall said, she also said she had no indication that it was suspicious so far.
Many of the men who sleep at the Coalition have jobs and were concerned about their ability to get to work following the fire, an official said.
The Orlando region is faced with a rising homelessness crisis, which has increased roughly 75% over five years. In the last month alone, 1,800 people contacted the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida seeking help, with about half accounting for people experiencing homelessness for the first time, said CEO Martha Are.
The men’s facility accounts for roughly 20% of the available shelter beds in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, which are normally full every night.
“Our shelters are already full, so when we have a shelter like this that loses some capacity, it just exacerbates that.” – Martha Are, CEO of Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.
“It does highlight however the ongoing crisis our community is facing with people experiencing homelessness,” Are said. “Our shelters are already full, so when we have a shelter like this that loses some capacity, it just exacerbates that.”
As the Coalition grapples with the fire’s aftermath, the provider is accepting monetary donations at www.centralfloridahomeless.org, as well as non-perishable food items, men’s clothing, bedding, blankets, pillows, hygiene products and meals.
“The guys who were living here, the fire alarm went off, they ran out of the building and they weren’t able to go back in again,” Krall said. “They literally just had the clothes on their back and much of the clothing they left behind was damaged in the fire.”
