New men’s homeless shelter gets $350,000 Home Depot makeover
At dawn Tuesday, the future Orlando Union Rescue Mission men’s home — a converted motel — was surrounded by blacktop and dust.
Four hours later, it had thick lawn, dense shrubbery, 1,500 square feet of raised garden beds, a full basketball court, 40 picnic tables and a long line of benches.
“Night and day,” said Navy veteran Sam Clay, 55, who has lived at the mission’s Parramore shelter for two years. “It’s just beautiful.”
The mission’s sometimes rocky relocation to West Colonial Drive — to make way for the Orlando Magic’s $200 million sports-entertainment complex — isn’t expected to be complete until late April, when it will become home to more than 200 men working their way out of homelessness. But it got a major assist Tuesday from the Home Depot Foundation, which
brought in nearly 650 volunteers and $350,000 worth of improvements to what used to be the Parkwood Inn near John Young Parkway.
The effort was the foundation’s largest so far.
“They’ve got guys here from Oregon building picnic tables for us,” said the mission’s CEO, Fred Clayton, stepping aside for a forklift to deliver sod. “They put in an entire irrigation system. We weren’t even going to have an irrigation system.”
The foundation tapped its outdoor-products vendors, in Orlando attending a conference, for much of the materials and labor. But many of the volunteers said the project was their main draw.
“We just came to help out,” said Deanna Frye of Charlotte, N.C., who laid sod and planted bushes. “This is the whole purpose. It was pretty amazing how everybody was so willing to help.”
There were 80 pallets of donated sod, 2,500 plants and shrubs planted, 40 picnic tables assembled and two equipment sheds built. The volunteers also created a special veterans memorial garden — a nod to the focus of the Home Depot Foundation, which has pledged $250 million for combatwounded, senior and homeless veterans by 2020.
“We wanted to create outdoor spaces that feel inviting to them as they go through their transition” from homelessness, said Shannon Gerber, the foundation’s executive director.
The project was initially scheduled for last fall but put on hold by Hurricane Irma.
“I love this green space,” said Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill, who came to see the final results. “And this is where the most need is for these services. This is a long-term ministry that builds up people’s morale.”
The project was organized by Rebuilding Together Orlando, another nonprofit organization that normally tackles individual home-improvement projects for lowincome homeowners who otherwise can’t afford them. Executive Director Ed Green said the Home Depot Foundation first contacted him more than a year ago.
“They wanted to know if we were prepared to handle a project that would bring in more than 600 volunteers — all working in one site,” he said. “I said, ‘Sure.’ The answer is always yes in the nonprofit business. And by the grace of God, it worked out.”
The project required food trucks, beverage stations and port-a-potties for the masses. An emcee, sound system and music helped pump up the crowd.
For Clayton, it was one of those rare days when things come together smoothly.
The mission spent nearly three years hunting for a place to move its shelter after agreeing to sell its Parramore property to the Magic in 2014. It originally planned to build on land it owned on Old Winter Garden Road but ran into opposition from Orange County’s zoning board and nearby residents.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s administration then offered a city-owned lot on Anderson Street in Parramore, but that too faced resistance from the community.
The new location on West Colonial — which allows the mission to offer 90 more beds, including 50 reserved for veterans, expand its substance-abuse treatment program and add the garden — will be a good fit for the nonprofit, Clayton said. But critics remain.
“I’m not opposed to the rescue mission, but what we’re opposed to is having all these homeless centers in a single area of the city,” said Homer Hartage, a former Orange County commissioner and chairman of a citizens group that fought the project, Save West Orlando. “The question is: Do you want a pretty homeless shelter or a bare homeless shelter? Really, what’s the difference? It’s still a homeless shelter.”