Grants could lead to day centers

Facilities would be safe havens for unsheltered people and those with severe mental illnesses

Orlando officials agreed to grant about $45,000 to a pair of organizations to study if and how they can open centers to help in the region’s bout with street homelessness and mental health.

The grants to Aspire Health Partners and Grand Avenue Economic Community Development Corp will help the groups take a look at costs and plans to repurpose and upgrade existing facilities to provide safe havens for unsheltered people and those with severe mental illnesses.

The Orlando region lacks day centers, said Lisa Portelli, a senior advisor on social services and homelessness to Mayor Buddy Dyer. Such facilities would provide safe spaces and case management for people who need specialized care.

“In both cases, they meet an important need: Access to a bed that has low barriers of entry,” Portelli said. “We all see the need for critical mental health services for our population.”

The point-in-time count by the Homeless Services Network identified 225 unsheltered people in Orange County — an inexact count, given the difficulties of finding people without an address — and many gather in encampments in the downtown area.

The grants were unanimously approved by the city council on Monday. The grant to Aspire Health Partners has a timeline for a report until the end of August, while the study of Pathways extends through October.

The grant to Pathways Drop-In Center is for $33,500, and the study intends to look at the condition of the current five-building campus and determine how it can best meet the needs of low-income people suffering from mental illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression.

Helaine Blum, CEO of Grand Avenue Economic Community Development Corp., which owns Pathways, said in all likelihood at least one of the buildings needs to be torn down and rebuilt, but hopes the study finds the other buildings just need to be repurposed.

About 40 people come daily to the facility, Blum said, for anything from case management to meals, showers or a safe place during the day. It doesn’t offer overnight services. But Blum hopes to double its daily capacity with any upgrades, she said.

“The facility isn’t very big,” she said. “In order to expand the number of people we serve, we’d need more room.”

Within a larger space, Blum said she’d be interested in adding areas for groups, dining and other activities.

A second grant, about $12,000 for Aspire Health Partners, will look into the feasibility of using a vacant building it owns on Gore Street to provide respite services to homeless people. The study will try to pin down a potential floor plan and construction costs, according to the funding agreement, and determine the feasibility of such a plan.

The document says it would look into having about 30 beds — 20 for men and 10 for women — as well as medical rooms, social spaces and other necessary facilities.

The nearly 12,000-squarefoot building used to be Aspire’s Center for Drug-Free Living.

Aspire declined to comment on the study.

City Commissioner Regina Hill praised the potential of an Aspire facility and said treating those with mental illness would be “one of the most important projects we’re going to undertake.”

City officials along with several of the area’s largest social services groups began meeting in November to study the problem and discuss solutions. In January, Eric Gray, the executive director of the Christian Service Center for Central Florida, estimated about 100 homeless encampments throughout the county, underscoring the need for services.