Orlando leaders unanimously signed off on an idea to retrofit two charter-style buses into mobile homeless shelters, an effort they hope will provide 39 beds each night and ultimately help move 407 people into permanent housing.
Under the plan, the city will purchase two buses for $175,000 apiece, which will be operated by the Christian Service Center. The Community Redevelopment Agency, a special taxing district funded by downtown property owners, is set to fund the operation, totaling about $3.1 million over three years.
The buses are planned to sleep 39 people per night – 20 in one vehicle and 19 in the other, with the Christian Service Center planning for all overnight guests to work with a case manager for more permanent housing.
Amid criticism from some opponents that the city should table the plan and call on other cities and counties to step up efforts in providing services, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the city would love others to step up, but he wasn’t willing to wait.
“Orlando is a compassionate city and we’re not going to wait on them,” he said. “We’re the tip of the spear.”
Interim city commissioner Shan Rose, who represents downtown Orlando and Parramore, said she was once homeless and a bed would have been a benefit she didn’t have.
“This is an opportunity for someone to have dignity and sleep in a bed,” Rose said.
Currently, the Christian Service Center operates as a day-services provider for homeless services. It’s next to Inter&Co Stadium and serves roughly 400 people daily, its CEO Eric Gray said, and about 11,000 unique people last year.
City officials say this effort is an attempt to plug a shortage of shelter beds in the region with at least some new beds, at a time when homelessness is rising. Existing beds are full nearly every night and regional leaders say there’s a need for roughly 1,000 more beds in Central Florida.
Orlando recently pulled the plug on a larger proposal, which would have transformed the county’s Work-Release Center on Kaley Street into a low-barrier shelter. That was met with broad pushback from neighbors in Wadeview Park, about a mile east of the proposed shelter, who feared a shelter would lead to crime and a rise in homeless people near their homes and schools in the neighborhood.
Local governments are making a renewed effort to add shelter after a state law required cities and counties to ban public camping. The law also allows residents and businesses to file lawsuits if encampments aren’t cleared within five days of a complaint.
The bus idea may be gaining traction. Tim McKinney, who runs a nonprofit in Bithlo, said the bus would provide an immediate, short-term housing option for unsheltered persons who currently have zero options.
Gray said there have been discussions of similar buses staged in east and west Orange County.
Even in places where camping bans were on the books prior to the law, such as Orlando, the state legislation has led to stricter enforcement. Over the last six months of 2024, 19 people were arrested under the ban in the city, compared with 32 in January and February of this year, according to the Jail Data Initiative.
The shelter bus idea drew opposition from a coalition that included some members of the group that led the charge against the SoDo shelter.
“The dignity buses are not dignity,” said Randy Ross, a former Orlando commissioner candidate.
Chelsea Cantilli, who also worked with the group, said they wanted to halt the bus idea.
“We don’t want this bus,” she said. “Let someone else pick up their share.”
Suspended City Commissioner Regina Hill, who spoke during public comment, said she supported the planned shelter buses, but asked for the vehicles to be parked outside of Parramore, the neighborhood west of I-4 which houses the bulk of the region’s shelter beds.
“My ask today mayor and council is we do consider not housing the buses in the Parramore area,” she said. “It was promised that there were no more shelters. I know it’s not brick and mortar.”
Gray said the organization could park the buses throughout the community, and some churches have agreed to allow them. But at minimum, pick-up and drop-off each day would have to be at the Christian Service Center.
The group that would retrofit the buses, The Source, is based in Vero Beach and runs its own shelter-bus program, called the Dignity Bus. Under its initiative, about 13,000 nights of sleep are provided annually.
Stephen Hudak of the Sentinel staff contributed.
rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
