Leaders mark goal in housing homeless
168 vulnerable people sheltered in region
Ann Anderson stood before Central Florida’s government, faith and business leaders Thursday, her voice small and trembling, to tell a story of resurrection.
After falling ill and losing her job as a cook, she had spent nearly two years living in the woods of Orange County — where she grew sicker, was nearly raped and woke each day wondering how she would survive. She was cited for trespassing five times and cycled in and out of the region’s emergency rooms so often she lost count.
But last July, through the help of an outreach team for the Health Care Center for the Homeless, she moved into an apartment, and at age 45, she now has medical care, dentures, eyeglasses, a case manager and a place where she can sleep safely.
“They make you feel human,” she said of those who have helped her. “I am so grateful.”
For officials and advocates working to house the region’s
chronically homeless — those who have been without permanent shelter for at least a year — Anderson’s case is part of a “milestone” goal to house more than 100 of the most vulnerable homeless individuals in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties since mid-2014.
By the end of May, the officials announced they had actually housed 168 people — all of whom suffer serious physical or mental illnesses that put them at great risk of dying on the street. Another 555 chronically homeless individuals with less serious disabilities also have been housed, saving what is projected to be millions of dollars each year in taxpayer money for uninsured medical care, police and jail costs.
“When you take on tough issues, you can sometimes get discouraged,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. “But when you think as a community of how far we’ve come … I don’t think it’s anything short of remarkable.”
In 2013, the region was ranked worst among the nation’s midsized cities for its chronically homeless population. At that point, after years of talk but little action on the problem, the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness led a group of community leaders to Houston, which had led the nation in progress on the issue.
Instead of giving homeless people soup and sandwiches, instead of requiring them to sober up and take job training or find work before helping them — as many agencies traditionally required — leaders in Houston decided to house people first, then work on the other problems.
The model is called Housing First, and Central Florida’s leaders — once skeptical of the concept — embraced it. In 2014, Florida Hospital donated $6 million to the effort, a record for the hospital and the region, helping launch an ongoing Homeless Impact Fund to further the cause.
On Wednesday, hospital officials said it has been money well spent.
“This [population] was costing us millions and millions of dollars a year — not only in providing them care, but in many instances, we were actually funding temporary housing for them” after they were discharged, said Eddie Soler, executive vice president of finance for Adventist Health System, Florida Hospital’s parent company. “And I can almost guarantee you that other hospitals in our community were experiencing the same.”
Florida Hospital’s 100 sickest homeless patients alone ran up a bill of over $3 million a year, Soler said. Since they’ve been housed, their emergency room visits have dropped 57 percent and their emergency room bills have been cut 34 percent.
Ultimately, hospital officials hope to save more than their initial $6 million donation. Orlando Health and the Orange County Jail are also expected to see considerable savings, though they have yet to release their figures.
“For us, it was never really about returning an investment to our business,” said Michael Griffin, vice president of advocacy and public policy for Adventist Health. “It was about convincing people that there were other reasons than just being nice to help the homeless.”
While celebrating the milestone, the commission’s CEO Shelley Lauten noted that the job is far from finished. The latest count of the three counties’ homeless population, both chronic and short-term, showed a oneyear increase of nearly 29 percent — to 2,074 people. But she expects progress in the years to come.
“As I look at what we’re doing, we’re really pushing the community to change the way it has always done something,” she said.
For Anderson, that change has almost certainly saved her life, she said. With her health gradually improving, she hopes to be able to work again.
“I wake up every day, and I have a home of my own,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like a dream.”