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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon and welcome to the March 24th 2025 meeting of the Orlando City
Council uh we're going to begin today's proceedings with the invocation of the pledge of allegiance uh led today by Commissioner Sheen thank you Mayor Dyer and and uh I am a Christian and I do I do I was raised in the Catholic faith and when I have difficult times I do
tend to turn to scripture and there are several that I'd like to read today in light of current events pro Proverbs 14:31 "Those who oppress the poor insult their maker but those who are kind to the needy honor him." And Proverbs
28:27 "Whoever gives to the poor will not want but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse." Proverbs 19:17 "Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done." In Deuteronomy
15:11 for there will never cease to be poor in the land therefore I command you you shall open wide your hand to your brother to the needy and to the poor in your land in Jesus name we pray amen amen
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right madame clerk would you call
the role and make determination of a quorum please commissioner Gray here commissioner Ortiz here commissioner Stewart here commissioner Sheen here interim Commissioner Rose here commissioner Burns here mayor Dyer here mayor you have a quorum with all members present thank you Madam Clerk first
order of business is consideration of minutes from the workshop agenda and city council of meetings of February 24th 2025 motion by Commissioner Rose second by Commissioner Sheen all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those opposed and so the
motion carries unanimously we have no awards presentations or recognitions today so we will go into the mayor's update and I have a short um update today commissioners since our last meeting we announced that the exploration of using
the county's work release center on Kaye was not a viable option but I want to thank each of you for your willingness to pursue bold strategies towards what is one of the more challenging issues that we face um and that's the needs of
our unsheltered population commissioner Sheen I want to thank you for your leadership and listening to the concerns of the uh somewhat vocal residents in your district um as we evaluated that shelter and although a permanent shelter
is not on the board at this point we are going to remain committed to working with our regional partners businesses community groups and residents to find solutions to meet the needs for those experiencing homelessness because it turns out you can't just snap your
fingers and they all go away um even though some people believe that's the case uh toward that end today we continue our investment in reducing homelessness and we're investing another $8 million directly tied to that commitment we're amending our program
year 2024 annual action plan to enable us to accept another million dollars in Rush funding from the federal government and this will be our third and largest allocation of Rush funds uh the bulk of which are anticipated to go towards rapid rehousing which we know is a strategy that works we're providing $4
million for the development of affordable housing rental housing for survivors of domestic violence dating violence sexual assault stalking and human trafficking um this is an investment that ensure that our most vulnerable residents have a safe place
to live independently after exiting an emergency shelter with on-site services provided by Harbor House michelle thank you for being here also I performed Michelle's wedding ceremony one year ago
today so congratulations on your first anniversary and thirdly there's a new program that we are um entertaining today called 407 Connect which is a partnership with the city the CRA and the Christian Service Center will be
purchasing two custom fabricated buses that will provide safe overnight shelter for 40 individuals um they will also receive comprehensive care and case management services including connections to jobs and health care with
that we will move on to the consent agenda the consent agenda is a number of items are acted upon through a single vote of council we give each of our council members the opportunity to comment on consent agenda items um and also important happenings in their
districts we rotate the order that we do that commissioner Sheen is first up but I'll remind you that we removed the items related to the 4077 connect buses and we will hear that at a public or a new at new business um
immediately following consent agenda okay Commissioner Sheen thank you Mayor Dyer and I usually give a non-denominational prayer but it's I've been going through a rough time lately and I kind of needed to pray in my own tradition so I hope that was not offensive to anyone um I'd like to commend Commissioner Burns and
Commissioner Stewart for the work they do outside of this outside of this committee outside of this council working with the homeless um this has been a really hard time and I just want to say that I think we really need to do some work to humanize our neighbors that
are homeless that are unhoused provide facts about the homeless population there's been a lot of things said that were deeply troubling and hurtful and um I think that we need to correct that misinformation i think we need to provide statistics on how providers
efforts have successfully gotten people off of the streets and into productive lives again and I think that we need to understand that many in our community are one paycheck or medical emergency away from homelessness it is not our place to judge them or to other them or
to try to teach treat them like they're subhuman and uh it's been like I say it's been a really tough time i've been very disappointed in some folks that live in my district and people that I consider friends and how the behavior's been um usually I'm good for a fight but
um I just can't see this being anything but um but divisive unfortunately and uh and not a solution but I do think we need to look to other solutions again I applaud my colleagues on this council who worked on work in this day in people in the community in this audience that
work with this population and work to help people day in day out it is not easy and boy did I learn that the hard way in the last few months so I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing the right thing to help others on the agenda today I'm glad to see that we're fixing the uh Conroy
Road LEDs i know it's been a struggle for public works but we finally figured out how to get up there and fix those things and get those light fixtures ch fixed um I'm delighted to see on item 3B7 the downtown arts district cultural facilities grant for the
courtyard see Paul's here great job Paul yes also um uh Commissioner Stewart's district but glad to see the Holocaust Museum site moving forward and uh and even though it's on new business also 407 connect that dignity bus to help
folks get off the streets and that's all I had mayor thank you very much thank you Commissioner commissioner Rose thank you mayor commissioners uh thank you everyone for being here um as you all know the month of March is Women's History Month and I want to commend all the organizations around the community who are celebrating women this month um
I joined Turner Construction and taking some work boots to Operation New Hope during women in construction week um glad to say that we celebrated and we had a expungement clinic to help those with need second chance getting their lives back together we saw over 80
people and we helped 30 people actually leave with applications and so what's significant about that is that a lot of times you'll get individuals that'll show up to an expungement clinic and they may not qualify so being able to qualify um almost half of the individuals who showed up is really good turnout um the Orlando Magic and the
Orlando Pride will have um Women's History Month events as well i want to give a special shout out and I want to thank the three main streets in District 5 City District Paramore and West Main Streets for their hard work of supporting small businesses we will collaboratively be hosting a cleanup on
April 27th in honor of Earth Month stay tuned for more details this Wednesday I will kick off what I call health is wealth campaign um there are there is a mobile medical bus that I'll bring bring into around the community to meet people where they are and be able to get examination it's
fully outfitted to allow individuals to get x-rays blood work etc um this is a way to make sure we're giving we're meeting the health needs of our community um this Thursday I will be joining United Against Poverty at Rollins College to discuss pathway to
hope um ways that we can come together and talk about breaking the cycle of poverty uh this week and Commissioner Burns will probably be joining we'll be turning the city purple as the Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Seven District will host their 88th district meeting and I will bring them
greetings um this Friday we will be biking to work at 7 a.m so hope you all can join us uh we're starting in Luminary Green at 7:00 a.m this Friday Lyft Orlando will be opening have an open house they built a financial well-being center and they'll have open
house this Friday starting at 5:00 pm um on to the agenda I want to congratulate Reverend Robert Spoony for celebrating his 13th anniversary at Mount Zioni Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church but also he is being appointed to the downtown development
board as a district 5 representative um for several months the city of Orlando Orlando Housing Authority and Lyft Orlando have been working to revitalize West Lakes and Lake Man corridor i'm glad to see 3F3 on the agenda as we provide some financial assistance to
continue the planning on this project um that will create a very positive impact in the district 5 i'm also excited to see 3B8 um as we will begin the overweighted restoration of Maxi Kroom's house um David and David can probably remember the days when I was in CRA and
I was like "Hey what are we doing about Maxi Krms?" Um so I think this is a really a great way to um celebrate the late Thomas Chapman as we work to restore Maxi Crooms we will begin talking about what we see inside and what our tenants look like um for those who don't please follow the District 5
on Facebook and Instagram to stay tuned with all of the activities that are happening in the district and thank you thank you Commissioner Burns okay thank you Mayor and good afternoon uh fellow commissioners and everyone in attendance um on March 6 I had the uh opportunity
of doing a attending the grand opening for Villaale Orlando resort it is a 80 acre resort in the heart of North Drive offering vacation home style accommodations so if you're planning your um uh your family reunions and
other big events you don't have to go out I4 to Davenport and out there we have accommodations great accommodations right here in North I Drive i believe it's about 564 uh individual units can accommodate from
two to 26 uh individuals in a unit so please consider North Drive when you're looking to accommodate your family reunions and other big big events also um on March 17th uh had the opportunity of participating in the unveiling of
Ebony Nutrition's consultants the fresh stop bus which is a mobile farmers market uh financially supported by Sprouts uh and this is a farmers market that goes throughout uh central Florida providing access to fresh fruits and
vegetables to underserved communities uh also Ebony Nutrition uh also celebrating 30 years their 30-year anniversary providing nutritional and educational resources to the Central Florida community uh and in honor of Women's History Month I just like to give Miss
Fabiola Gains and Miss Rice Weaver the founders a a huge shout out and say thank you for uh all that they've been doing for our community over the last 30 years also I just wanted to mention that uh summer camp is coming up registration
uh online registration begins Saturday April the 5th at 9:00 a.m uh for city residents and um 1 p.m for non city residents i want to encourage everyone if you're interested in getting your kids or grandkids into the summer camp
please sign up as soon as possible because I believe we were full within a couple of hours uh last year so please the demand is is high also um this uh the youth summer youth employment program will be opening up as well so
please contact my office i believe the application deadline is April the 30th so if you have um teenagers who are looking for summer employment please uh have them to reach out to uh to us to start that application
uh on the agenda mayor uh I'd just like to say for 3A1 thank you to our residents who've agreed to serve on the various cities citizens uh advisory committees advisory boards we wouldn't be able to do uh operate efficiently uh
without your help so thank you again for allowing to serve in that capacity also on 3F1 uh I am supportive of the amendment to the action plan to add additional funding uh for the Rush Rapid Rehousing uh glad to see that we're getting an
extra million dollars to be able to do that also for 3F2 the uh funding for the uh for the Grove the nine town homes that will be built to um for survivors and children uh following domestic violence uh and
with that Mayor I'm uh that completes my talk thank you Commissioner Commissioner Gray thank you Mayor uh a lot of thank yous real quick uh March was a busy month so I'll I'll go fast with those but first of all I wanted to start uh we had our annual spring festival back on March 3rd out at
the Vista Lakes community i want to thank both of the chiefs for coming out and being with us and and bringing the teams out uh but we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 to 2,000 neighbors uh that uh were exposed to 70 of our small business uh groups and uh
Commissioner Ortiz came out uh never saw anybody eat that much cotton candy in my life but he did no I'm kidding he didn't really but uh we had a good time and so thanks to to my team um for putting that together a great event um following up with that uh we did a safe driving uh
event out at Lake Nona uh at Neor's Hospital uh thanks again to OPD and the team for coming out and sharing with our teenagers some of the the perils of uh of uh unsafe driving and so that that was well received by the neighborhood um
we continued our meet the chief uh uh programs in in there and again thanks to OPD for bringing the team out and connecting with the neighbors uh it's a great program and wellreceived so thanks for that um also um uh Lake Nona Chamber
of Commerce which is a real active uh chamber had their festival on the 8th of March at the USA so uh well done by them and thanks to that uh a couple other things real quick and I'll get to the agenda um since we last met um I want to
congratulate the Tavistock uh company and Lake Nona Holdings for uh holding the uh their annual impact forum uh which what they try to do is bring in uh select speakers from throughout not just the country the world to continue to
expose uh the the medical and technology clusters that we're building in the Lake Nona area uh and they bring some pretty certainly qualified and high credentialed speakers in the medical and technology world but also some some folks that kind of put us on the map
this year's speaker they had Iran Magic Johnson the former MBA star came and spoke uh former President George W bush spoke and also Mark Cuban came and spoke so uh it's a worldwide group and again it's just a great exposure for the city
of Orlando and and certainly the L Lake Nona area as they continue to to drive that that growth in in Lake Nona uh and with that the only thing I have on the the agenda um it's it's also what Commissioner Burns talked about which was the item three of two which is the
home art program um look uh and that's with OSO properties my big issue with that is what we have with some other things and that is the continuing cost to provide affordable housing is just a real tough tough business and we got to figure out I think a a different way to
do that um this is we're basically the the grant is $4 million to do nine town homes well when you do the math that's $440,000 a unit for a two-bedroom two bath town home certainly it's needed and we need to do it we got to figure out a way to
to kind of drive those costs down i think we just did a senior housing project in in Commissioner Sheen's district again much needed but the cost was over a half a million dollars per unit so um we I'm I'm not quite sure I know the answer but I know we've we've
got to drive that down because it's we we need to provide housing but it's so expensive uh there there's just got to be a better a better uh model for that um so I support it because it's needed um they do good work um out there but um it's just so expensive so we'll work on
that uh and with that mayor that's that's all I've got thank you sir thank you Commissioner commissioner Ortiz thank you Mayor you all ready because there's a long list of things just kidding just kidding early 26 I had the pleasure of attending the Elevate
Orlando 2025 vision breakfast this incredible nonfor-profit organization helps empower urban youth by providing educational opportunities and fostering long-term lifechanging uh mentorship that equips students with the tools they need to thrive so with
the support of dedicated teachers and mentors we need more of that we need to prepare youth we need to make sure that they're ready for what's to come which as we can see there's a lot of uh hurdles for us to jump in in the near future later that same day I was allowed to attend the opening ceremony of the uh
2025 National Business Aviation Association Orlando Regional Forum our discussion center on the future of flight transportation in Central Florida focusing on the strategic location of Orlando Orlando's executive report which will transform air travel foster job
creation and drive economic growth in our community it's all about technology now and now is he's getting to aviation and so we need to jump on that one pretty quick on the evening of February 27 the Englewood Center um hosted a memorable Black History Family Night the
event united families friends and neighborhoods uh to celebrate unity and culture it was a lot of fun uh these kids are just superb um on March 1st of course I enjoy the uh spring festival thank you Commissioner
for inviting me i had a great time and I was not the one eating a lot of cotton candy uh so um but thank you that was a lot of fun the community definitely enjoyed that they really come out and really engage so congratulations you have a great community too the
2025 12week spring session of the government academy began on March 4th um I know it's a little late to enroll now but I tell you what there's over 30 students we have in a learning everything that has to do with government hopefully they'll become ambassadors of the of um teaching uh
that what true governance is which is what we need to do in this day and age especially with our youth make sure that they understand that it's not just what we hear in the news or it's not just what we hear out there it's more than that it's getting involved with the government it's getting involved with with um boards out there to see how we
can be uh better get um a quality of life for our constituency march 10th I had the incredible opportunity to witness the outstanding creativity of our team members at the City of Orlando Employee Art Show opening reception the event was a vibrant showcase of artistic
talent with nearly 30 employees presenting various works in different mediums uh seeing such a broad spectrum of creativity on this place was truly inspiring and we just don't know the talents we have at city hall we do have plenty so we should continue showcasing
our people like that maybe taking them to another level maybe we should take them to the county and the state anyhow tomorrow Commissioner Stewart and I will be visiting Tallahassee to advocate for things that we need uh in our region more so housing transportation which are the big items especially uh surrounding
the the theme of homelessness and um and other subjects but u we'll be coming back and report to you all what's going on over there the other commissioners have covered some of the items at the agenda so with that Mayor thank you Commissioner commissioner Stewart
thank you Mayor let me just share a couple things as well um uh and thank you first of all Commissioner Burns for mentioning the summer camp we have uh uh our our summer camp program in this city is is great uh and is in high demand so those of you who want to get involved in
summer camp please please call commissioner Burns is right it go it sells out in about two or three hours so please be on the lookout for that information and get taken care of and thank you um Commissioner Ortiz about the part legislative days um uh it gives me a chance to remind everybody that if
you'd like I'm trying to do a weekly update of what's going on at least how I see it from uh of Tallahassee if you'd like to be involved in that just shoot me an email i'll put you on my list um and we'll talk about some things there are some bills that are going through
that would have a significant um uh impact on our citizens and the city of Orlando so we're trying to keep our eyes on those and making sure they don't go through a couple things I'd like to share with you about happened in the neighborhood the red light red light celebrated their 20th anniversary uh I
went over to Baldwin Park to meet with uh Jason and Such Chin um about celebrating Osprey's 10th anniversary over there which you can't believe it's been that quickly so much um Blended Beastro uh we celebrated Saturday their fifth anniversary tamalei and Company
opened up in College Park um and uh and we welcome Inside Out I the IV hydration and wellness center in Ivano Park so a lot of things are happening i'm got great to see these guys go back and uh and and some of these places that are vacant to come back in and we're excited
about that special thanks to Jennifer Dhalander her entire staff out there at Lou Gardens had the plant sale a couple weeks back uh had a wonderful response i don't know how many total but I think the first count was somewhere about 15,000 people in two days and so it's really really neat to see that happen i
got a chance to get out there get a chance to meet some of the people over there and they were just thrilled about it and uh get a chance to see the park u see the blue gardens at no charge for a few days which is nice upcoming uh the
wetlands visitor center is having a ribbon cutting on April 2nd it's been a long time coming mayor looking forward to doing that uh and then the Manellum Museum is having their fabulous friends coming up on the 5th uh to help raise money for the Manellum Museum so we're excited about that uh on the agenda
today oh and one other thing which I think is important now that I've got a uh granddaughter who's driving um on March 26th a teen safety summit I think if I'm up mistaken where's the chief is that I think it's 26th it's on my Facebook and I think I mailed some
things out but I think it's 26th please get a chance if you have young drivers please get a chance to go over and look at that it is um one mistake um um one misjudgment can cost a kid a life and it just bothers me a great deal now
that I've got a 16-year-old driving uh I'm really really careful to that on the agenda today let me mention just a couple of things um the um go 3H1 through 4 the law enforcement trust is put in $28,000 from the essentially confiscated funds to the Boy Scouts
Harbor House and Mothers Against Drunk Driving excited about taking that and using that money there um and the 3B13 is a forward grant um resilient um walk resilient walkways and rethinking design I think is that what it is so uh it's a
forward grant that we talked about almost a million dollars to help us uh and design and implementation appreciate that um 3B18 and 19 are two pavilions that we'll be putting in Albert Park and Dartmouth Park uh we've done a lot of uh value engineering for those two parks we
hope to have those started in a few months but uh as soon as we get some scheduling here we'll be able to announce formal plans to the community we've had gotten community input for the last three or four years but now we'll be able to actually announce the plans and what we're starting so we're looking to have those things done by the end of
the year and I appreciate that uh and uh mayor I think that's all that I have so with that I'd like to go ahead and move the consent agenda motion by Commissioner Stewart second by Commissioner Ortiz all in favor of the motion indicate by saying so by saying I I those opposed and so the motion
carries okay let's move on then to new business and that will bring us to the funding agreement for the Christian Service Center 407 connect project david thank you mayor good afternoon commissioners uh if we could cue the
presentation up that would be great is it in front of you all just yet it is okay no no got it now all right perfect so excited to talk a little bit more about our 407 uh connect project that we bring before you today really targeted
at uh moving forward our services especially in downtown uh to advance uh some of the homeless individuals and those experiencing homelessness um to housing situations and off the streets of our downtown little bit of background that you all are very well informed of uh but was the uh very unique step that
you took uh to allocate $58 million in federal funding which we referred to as Accelerate Orlando to invest in housing and homelessness initiatives uh there was an action plan uh and know demonstrated to really do three things reducing the presence of unsheltered persons in downtown or in the city
holistically by 50% ensuring no child spends the night on the streets of Orlando and then maintaining clean and safe streets uh for all of our users uh Accelerate Orlando uh again as you know has a unique focus on long-term
solutions uh the this project the 407 Connect project we found uh being very specific in being able to provide an immediate impact uh to those experiencing homelessness in downtown the concept of the program would utilize uh buses uh that comes out of a program
known as the dignity bus project down in Vero Beach uh where charter style buses these 45 uh foot buses you may think of a Greyhound style bus would be retrofitted uh to house approximately 20 different sleeping pods uh it would have restrooms storage compartments as well
as security features uh with video surveillance onboard uh overnight security personnel uh so effectively uh by utilizing uh this initiative to purchase two buses and then operate those in partnership with the Christian service center uh immediately
approximately 40 individuals uh we be able to have immediate housing and then through a series of services which I will talk about uh in the remainder of this presentation ultimately make an even larger impact uh in getting people uh housed and off the streets of our
city uh some of you uh accompanied us to when we brought the dignity bus here uh to city hall this is an image of it when it was parked uh in the loading dock um you can see there just the style of bus this is the actually a specific bus that is in operation right now uh in Vero
Beach in fact the day that it visited us uh it went home so to speak that night and housed people that that very same evening uh here's an image of some other uh municipalities who have already gone down the path of utilizing a similar housing solution u you see this top
component in Chicago Illinois they call it the night fort uh and then in wound socket Rhode Island it is called the dignity bus a little image here of the interior of the bus so uh it is was a little bit hard for me to kind of picture how you would convert one of
these buses ultimately to a a shelter type situation uh I can tell you seeing was believing uh which is why we wanted to bring the bus here uh so that you all can tour it and some of the community members can tour it as well um you see here the various different sleeping pods um you'll notice that each has its own individual light it has its own
individual uh um privacy curtain there's bedding there's obviously a power that's there as well you can't see it in this image but each individual pod has its own outlet so the individual in that uh specific pod can charge their their mobile phone or what have you overnight
as well so what makes this bus unique uh you kind of heard me mention before the difference between long-term uh as well as more of immediate type of services uh from the point of approval the bus can be ready in about four to six weeks and
to start making an impact uh in our homeless environment uh it's mobile right quite uh and simple uh the bus can move it is an operational bus um you just turn the key and it can drive to wherever you see fit and it's cost-effective and it's an innovative
way that we can not only demonstrate how we can impact those who are experiencing homelessness in Orlando but how we can take it uh on a road show of sorts and show other municipalities especially in Central Florida how they can take steps in their own communities uh to a impact the homeless individuals that they have
and hopefully prevent any additional growth of our homeless population here in downtown i'll talk a little bit more about that um later so the proposal itself uh as the mayor noted in his opening remarks it's a partnership uh between the city of Orlando the
community redevelopment agency and the Christian service center uh both the CRA and the and the city would provide both the funding from the city side to purchase the buses uh those two buses it's approximately $350,000 and then the CRA would provide approximately $1
million in operational funding uh this was talked about a little bit before but the Christian service center um has operated a program um called Rush or the rapid unsheltered survivor housing program uh which connected unsheltered paramore residents uh with housing uh
and when you basically take that model uh of what the Christian Service Center was able to achieve uh which their initial goal when they set out on that first set of the program was to uh get 40 people off the streets of Paramore and and get them into uh housing uh when you look at their first year's report
they're actually able to impact 257 people uh and that represented 111 households uh were ultimately housed so when you take that uh success rate that they were able to have with that program and you uh kind of tag it on to the concept of having these approximately 40
beds with this 407 connect project um you look at having an ex uh exponential impact on the homeless population it gets you from 40 individuals per night to what we estimate uh as over 400 or 407 individuals that would be housed over the three-year course of this
program um so with that just kind of an operational structure and how it would work uh uh basically at approximately 8:00 p.m uh individuals would board uh the buses at the Christian Service Center uh at that point they would remain on those buses uh until the morning time uh where they would exit uh
they would have breakfast and then ideally be connected uh with their place of work uh at either the links uh station that's here in downtown link central station or they may even be able to take a bus right from the Christian service center uh or they would have access to the services that are already
on the Christian service center campus uh the cse would provide full case management there on campus so individuals would not be uh additionally roaming around downtown or our paramore area uh and individuals that themselves would be a part of the program until they were ultimately
placed in housing uh it's not a component where it's just 40 random individuals on any one given night people would apply to be in the program they would go through background check and then they would be in the program until either a they're connected with housing or b they chose to opt out for
whatever reason they may have uh so when you go through that process of who is the uh what individuals when they apply are kind of the right fit for this program it is not for everyone uh the priority will first be given to those that the Christian
service center has had some sort of background and exposure with and understand that they have income and can be successful in maintaining a permanent residence once they are ultimately placed that income doesn't necessarily have to be from a job though obviously uh those individuals who may uh have
jobs that they just need to be upskilled for to make better money or they have a part-time job that they need to get to be full time uh would obviously be eligible as well those receiving social security income would obviously be ideal candidates uh or or those who have family or loved ones in another city or
state uh that just need to be ultimately contacted uh in order to be able to make that connection so they can be relocated and reunified with those loved ones uh would be ideal candidates for this service as well uh I mentioned this earlier but packaged with the proposed
comprehensive case management program that the Christian Service Center would provide we anticipate uh that we can house 407 people over the three-year course of this program uh and one of why I think is the real u unique and
appropriate opportunities uh that this program provides is what we call the road show uh so having other municipalities be able to invest in homeless services is very important uh we've had many conversations at this council uh of the the amount of both
time and resources that the city of Orlando pours into homelessness in the central Florida area and we really look for the municipalities around us to step up uh and provide services to their residents as well uh during the day so to speak uh um these buses would serve
as an opportunity where we would accompany the Christian service center to go to targeted municipalities and showcase the innovative uh and lowcost solution uh that could ultimately start to impact homelessness uh in Central Florida but not specifically in the city of Orlando uh uh Eric Gray will come up
later and we're already experiencing some positive outlook uh on this very specific item uh when you look at by the numbers wanted to just show this slide um um there's really two things happening in the funding agreement the first of which is the uh funding needed
to uh purchase the buses themselves uh that would be proposed to come from our Accelerate Orlando funding uh it's approximately 300 for it is $350,000 in order to do that u the remainder of the funds are for the operational components of the buses uh but the reason that that
one line is highlighted in yellow which is movein cost is a third of the amount of that funding which is approximately a million dollars a year is for that movein cost specifically to get people potentially that first month's rent that they need in order to be able to sign a lease in a unit uh or it might be for the security deposit but whatever
barrier they have to get off the streets and into housing and be able to maintain it as I mentioned earlier is a significant component of that funding when you look at the overall cost structure of what this works out to on a kind of per bed per night uh situation
uh when you take all the costs that means the cost of both acquiring the buses housing individuals uh as well as having that case management uh it comes out to uh just about $78 a night so under $80 a night which and Eric can
speak more about this but when you look at the broad spectrum of what the general accepted rate is for a bed per night component in a situation uh like this it's about 100 so it's a lowc cost solution uh when you take that one step further and you actually remove some of the costs that aren't traditionally
calculated in that that's the cost to let's say acquire the buses or which would traditionally be a hard shelter we all know what how significant those costs can be as well as some of the wraparound services cares uh our cost goes down to about $40 a night uh which is a vast reduction over uh the
traditional rate that this may cost uh just a quick uh component on community outreach so we presented the 407 connect project uh to the Paramore Community Engagement Council on on two different occasions uh one of them was in January you see on the 14th another one was on
February 11th uh those images actually there on the right uh is actually of one of the meetings um if you look closely you'll see all uh most of the members of the PCEC there in attendance as well as Eric Gray Samantha Lavine on our staff as well as some of the dignity bus staff and myself uh we had a very robust
conversation as to what this meant uh not only for the city but also uh for Paramore uh that second picture below was we actually took the bus that same night and brought it to that meeting uh to give them all an opportunity to view the bus as well we invited several other groups uh the Christian Service Center
board members of that came the Homeless Services Network came Coalition for the Homeless Salvation Army Orlando Rescue Mission the Callahan Neighborhood Association the Terry Town Homes then the Lake Dot Neighborhood Association were also uh invited um so as I
mentioned uh the funding agreement itself uh provides for $350,000 of funding from Accelerate Orlando for the cost of purchasing the buses and then you see there the year 1 year two and year three funding uh that is proposed from the CRA for the operational component of the buses uh ultimately
that would we hope to yield housing more than 407 people over the course of that term uh um before we u get to any questions from us I would like to call up Eric Gray with the Christian Service Center um just to provide a little bit more context on the operations uh as our operational provider
thank you David eric thank you thank you so much um appreciate even the consideration of the project um there's a lot that I could talk to david covered everything really well so I won't take too much time i'm just here to answer questions i am excited about the
possibility of introducing some innovative solutions to a community that doesn't seem really ready to embrace the idea of emergency shelter and part of the reason we you know really agreed to to consider doing this is that we can take the buses during the day along with the mobile unit from Ebne Nutrition and
the salt mobile units and coalition's mobile units and others to Sanford and to St cloud and to CMI and to you know Bifflow and try to encourage a positive conversation positive town hall meetings at their city halls with their um not only their representatives and the staff
but also to the community at large because somehow we've got to encourage this type of conversation in a more robust way in the other 35 municipalities in Central Florida uh because right now as far as I know the only two municipalities in Central Florida that are investing anything as
it relates to homelessness would be the city of Sanford and then of course the city of Orlando so um this is part of the project that I feel um most excited about um except for one which is the idea that we have people that are uh sleeping out outside every single night
and I know that 40 more beds is not going to solve our particular problem here but any you know one person we can get off the streets for any one night is always worth it in my opinion but um you know I'm I'm a little my my point of view is a little bit skewed and I'll be honest about that because of what we do
every day so that I'm happy to answer any questions you might have questions for Eric or David commissioner Burns and Commissioner Ortiz all right uh how you doing Eric thank
you for um all the work that you all do in our community uh and it's great to be able to partner uh with you all i do have a a few questions um the the the target population for this initiative describe who that target population is
it's actually easier to describe who the population wouldn't be so there are a few uh types of individuals that wouldn't be appropriate for the bus people who are having um violent mental health issues would not be appropriate and we'd need to get them into some type of different type of solution as you know better than anyone with your work
there'd also be people who are in serious level addiction problems would not be appropriate for this in which case we would work to get them into treatment those are things we do now um the the easy way to explain who goes on the bus is people who are working but it's a little more complicated than that
because we are looking to triage the people who are most vulnerable but ones that have income at some level even if it's social security disability income that we can get into permanent housing so the idea here is to uh at minimum get at least 136 adults and children into
permanent housing each year that the program is is going i think we can do much more than that um there's another element coming up in front of the council today about the HUD rush funding um the that project when it was done back in 2023 was I believe about
$700,000 total um of which the Christian Service Center um spent about 600,000 of that to house 257 people i think because of the success of that project two years ago it's one of the reasons why the city of Orlando got among the largest awards after the last two hurricanes is because we had so much success in that
partnership and I expect we'll do the same with this and we'll exceed those goals right al also um when we talk about who will be available to get on this bus I understand that you all operate programs in Winter Park and
O'Coy uh will this uh 47 connect be limited to your current population at the Christian Service Center downtown i I believe it would be it would be very difficult for any of the clients that that operate in any other part of the
community to participate in the in the program particularly in Akoi um we have since closed down our Winter Park location um about a year and a half ago but the project in Akoi I think will be addressed because I believe the the county is in active conversations to do
these same projects on buses um out in East Orange County and West Orange County and I think they'll have similar conversations with city of Winter Garden city of AOE city of Apka and and Orange County at large now the current um your current population that you care for do they are they receiving case management
now so we see about 400 people per day at the the Paramore campus will see uh well last year we saw about 11,000 unique people we ultimately um we call it rescues so people that we've we've kept from becoming homeless or uh helped
exit homelessness was 1,236 u we case managed last year at some level or another um that's how we determined the 11,000 people they weren't necessarily all fully case managed in terms of a long-term issue but they worked with us such they were
entered into the HMIS system in terms of case management we have I believe it's now nine case managers that all work on different projects like the Veterans uh administration project that we have and they have different case loads everywhere from 20 you know cases they work on to over 120 that they might work
on given their project so each of these people that come to the campus are likely folks that we have case managers where we have not been able to find another solution for them so for example today we had a young man who was just released from one of our local behavioral hospitals and he came to us
this morning and he'll be on a bus this afternoon to Raleigh North Carolina so he can stay with his sister um people who come to us that we are able to reunify with their family it usually happens the same day or next day the people that are going to be participating in the 407 connect project
are likely people that are going to take more than a couple of days for us to be able to house somewhere in our case we've been very conservative in our budgeting anticipating that each person would be on the bus for 90 days i expect it'll be quite a bit less than that which is why I'm pretty confident we'll
exceed some of these numbers uh but just be to be safe that 90 days is what is typically uh normal for shelters in the United States right now um I think we'll we'll have uh some different numbers uh you know a couple months into the project we'll be able to learn a lot
more right also Eric the um the line item for move in cost sustainable housing the 331200 talk to talk to me about what's what's the use of that is will that be to pay uh rent for individuals for a certain
number of months and how would that be determined or limited um because if you're going to if you're going to move 407 over 3 years we're talking about 135 uh a year which comes out roughly to
about $2,400 a piece that can come from from that so I was just curious cuz initially when I saw that I thought it was primarily for paying rents to get them to the point of you know moving out into to stable housing and then them
taking over the uh payments themselves but this that doesn't seem that that's enough money to pay any rent so this is um you're right 331,200 divided by 136 it works out to be $2,435 per case which is about the
average of what we spend right now on move in assistance for people sometimes that project is called rapid rehousing sometimes it's referred to as diversion movein assistance just depends on your perspective but typically what it includes is the security deposit and first month's rent for that person we
don't place people in $3,000 a month apartments we're trying to find things that are closer between $1,000 and $1,400 so about $1,200 average $1,200* 2 is $2,400 time 136 is $331,000 yeah and my last question uh council
well maybe my last question uh when I'm looking at the budget I see in the first year personnel accounts for about uh 43% and then year two and three is more of about 60% of the of the entire budget uh
and I see that there are um se I think two case managers there's a intake full-time intake coordinator full-time program manager and uh as well as the drivers do we because I I as I
understand there's some case management that's currently happening do you think that that we may be uh administratively heavy because I do see you have a 10% administrative cost um because when we look at a housing program and 60% of the
budget going to personnel that that concerns me because the the idea is housing getting people in into housing so having 60% of the budget going to personnel uh is kind of concerning so can you just talk about that breakdown
and how you view that 60% yeah so in the first year the the reason the percent is different is because the upfront cost to purchase course right and it's lower in the first year and this is this project effectively has you know five people that will serve as attendants security attendants and drivers for the buses because it's a 7-day a week operation so
they'll be operating on a 4 day uh three-day work week each each and every other week mhm then in terms of case management because we are working to um effectively case manage not just 136 clients but probably significantly more because we're not going to be 100%
effective with every person who gets on the bus you're talking about each case manager is now going to be managing about 75 cases uh a year which is at least one to two people that they're going to be getting housed every single week so that's why we we require two case managers and it's a 7-day a week
operation so we have to be addressing this population of people seven days a week because some of them will only be on the bus for two or three days at a time some two or three weeks and some two or three months but the if anything the staffing's low um because this is we
we did not put together a a scenario where it's um some type of dream scenario this is a very solid Goldilocks level budget this is you know not not too much not too little this is what we feel is just right and we have put in dollar amounts here where I'd certainly
like to pay these people more but as you know better than anybody up here you know we just we limited on what we can spend but in this case if you imagine running any 40 bed shelter wherever it's going to be seven days a week you're going to need you know somebody who's physically there all the time just to provide security and management in this
case they're providing security and sanitation and driving the bus you're going to need at least a couple of people that are going to help house these folks and then you have to have at least one or two people that are there to actually check them in get them registered go through the assessment process and make sure that they qualify
for the program so it's actually a pretty small staffing program i I can see from looking at a perspective this way but that's one of the reasons why the cost of the bus program works out to be only about $39.60 per bed per night is because it's a it's not a brick-and-mortar type of
program all the wraparound services that you might see at the coalition of the Salvation Army like meals clothing showers laundry so we're you know we're eating all those costs ourselves that's just part of what we do that's and we're happy to do it so there's a lot that goes into that process the
administrative cost in terms of um how we do this for example the the rapid unsheltered survivor housing when the city got $700,000 for that project two years ago they took 10% off the top and then the remainder went to us to help fund people the 10% administrative rate
is pretty typical as again you know better than anybody but the idea here is that it's um it's not extra we have people that have to write these checks have to process with the landlords have to actually manage the individual cases from a financial standpoint and that is
is uh pretty significant when this last year we you know rescued over,200 people we expect that that number will continue to increase again and again we've now had to hire a second uh fiscal administrator just to manage the number of um rental agreements we have master
leases and so on okay thank you thank you for the questions commissioner Ortiz thank you mayor uh thank you Eric for this and I know you work really hard with our community and I'm a big admire of yours um but I have some questions
here in terms of u the three samples you guys gave us here socket uh Chicago Illinois and are those the only places in the nation that have this program those are the only places that have used the same nonprofit that we're working
with called the source there are other programs around the United States um we have focused on this program because its headquarters is so close in Vero Beach do we have some uh rate of success statistics do we have some statistics about the rate of success on this yeah
so the rate of success at the other programs is similar to what we've uh estimated here about 85% success rate in terms of getting people from the bus housed and that's that's similar to what's done in the other markets it's also relatively similar to what's done at shelters across the United States um we will lose some people because they
will choose just after the first night just not their thing and they're they'll leave and we won't see them again others might do the same thing after a couple of days or weeks um but for the most part getting people housed is really just a question of the money you know for us in in Central Florida we're a
little more challenged because it's also a question of the availability of the housing so um you know the money and the demand for housing at the same time are the two two-headed challenge that we face but we've we've done pretty well so far so I feel pretty good about our our
ability to do it again by any chance do you know how many buses Chicago Illinois has i believe they just have the one uh bus in that that community and I think Rhode Island um just has the one bus yeah and um then there's another plan right now for I I don't want to I don't
know if I'm speaking out of turn there's another nonprofit in our community that's planning on doing three of these buses over in Bvard County and then Orange County has been actively talking about doing a bus in East Orange County and West Orange County as well chicago you know has a population of over two million people yes one bus just for them
and then um they have a rapidly decreasing population though which means they have a lower per capita rate of homelessness than Orlando does but they also have a number of other shelters there's they have thousands of shelter beds in the city of Chicago whereas we only have about 900 about Vera Beach ver
Beach has no emergency shelter in their community at all this is this program is the only thing interesting fact and I'm glad that we brought that up because they have a population of about 17,000 something and uh nationwide the average of homelessness is 0.2 too i think I mentioned that before and uh so they
have more beds than the uh that it would be required per capita per population uh that you know if we were to use the those statistics um um something that I'm really concerned about and I didn't get a
chance to talk to you I'm sorry i know you call me um is about the co-ed concept u having males and females in the same bus especially when you have families you have kids and I'm glad that you guys are going to scrutinize this
each one of these persons that are going to be going in so you'll have a record of each one of these persons so right well it's still a concept that that concerns me because of the privacy issues especially for mothers with children um I suggested that we possibly divide them and Then if if it they get
packed then we see other considerations but that we divide them and have the females in one side or families in one side and then the gentleman's in the other i don't disagree with you i think what we're trying to do is make sure that we eliminate as many barriers as we can for those reason why some people aren't at the coalition or the Salvation
Army or the Rescue Mission all phenomenally well-run facilities but sometimes the family unit together um just doesn't want to be split up and that's you know the way they won't be split it's perfectly reasonable for us to try what you're suggesting and then
if it doesn't work we can make adjustments so we can we can start one way and switch to the other the goal here is to make sure that we're getting as many people off the streets every night as we can but I share your concern i mean safety is always going to be the number one concern and in tight quarters like this and a program like this it's
always going to be a concern but that's one of the reasons why there's funding in here for a security system and the attendants who will be awake for you know the entire time they're on the bus and have to do 20 minute every 20-minut shift walk that's what I meant when when families including the father not dividing them um let me ask you about
the concept because it's there's uh 19 beds or 20 beds per bus so the buses can accommodate 20 beds but we're depending on which buses are available for us to purchase because there's it's not like there's a lot of them out there um we might be able to convert one of them
into an ADA accessible bus and because of the population of people we serve now being so infirm making it up those four steps might be an issue if we did that that would probably drop two of the bus two of the beds out of one of the buses so the number might go from 40 to 38 but that's a decision we would actually make
in partnership with the city because as the funer if you have children where the kids occupy one bed one bed each okay there's certainly some exceptions to that if there's an infant but we very very rarely see infants most of the children who we see are homeless are
usually over the age of six and under the age of 16 okay one last question have we gotten some police feedback i would like to hear what the police department has to say about this because the guys are always in contact with our homeless population they're the ones out there you know what they think about the
whole concept i have not actually spoken to OPD about this project we work with OPD every day um but not on this specific project we we have a lot of additional work to do before this is actually implemented and while the buses can be constructed and put into use relatively quickly the four to six weeks
sounds aggressive to me but I'm I'm hopeful this will be up and running by June so maybe more like 8 to 10 weeks but that's what they promised so we should be able to do it actually for for that matter OPD and OFD also does OFD come in contact with these families i was just going to say that because we have fire rescue out um a couple times a
week but it's not for the reasons you might think um I think people would expect that there's a lot of drug overdose and things of that nature it's usually for heart attack stroke respiratory issues the same reason you have see people get sick at m millennia and just because people have been sleeping outside so fire rescue's been
great opd's been great i hate what they're having to do right now i know they hate it too they don't like the state law and I I really feel for them and having to do what they're doing and they're doing a fantastic job of trying to work within the the spirit of the law um and I I think that this is one more way to try to alleviate some of that
pressure because it's it's not just 40 more people off the street at minimum it would be another 160 people off the street every year and that's if we turn the buses over every 3 months i suspect it'll be quite a bit more than that this has been a a um big concern with the
community in terms of the monies that we're allocating to this 3 million $3.5 million um and comparatively when you compare what would be the cost of building a home or whatnot or maybe implementing a shelter uh how this figures this figures
that we're utilizing how how this compares this is significantly less expensive but it comes with another cost and that's it's not permanent so the project that the coalition for the homeless is right now raising money for which is a phenomenal concept and I wish them all the best because they they're really the leader in this area that
project will last for 100 years these buses will not last for 100 years so while they are significantly less expensive and the cost per bed per night and the upfront cost compared to a bricks and mortar project these buses might not last us more than about a dozen years before we'd have to start
the project over again but all things considered it's still less expensive than a bricks and mortar project this is not going to solve homelessness from a standpoint of 40 more people being off the streets the reason that I you know I thought this would be a great idea for us to do that excites me more than
anything else is actually started at the meeting that you've set up for the Tri County League of Cities and that meeting that the Commissioner Ortiz set up a year ago two two years ago I can't remember now there's a lot of frustration in the room where people just didn't really understand their responsibility for
housing homeless adults there was a sort of this interest of saying well CM is sending all their homeless adults to to Orlando and then Orlando is saying well but Sanford is sending all their homeless adults to CMI and it was back and forth to everybody which none of it's true because most of the people who
are experiencing homelessness in any community 90% of the time they were last housed in that community so we I suspect that the real gem or silver lining for this project is going to be the road show um we're really counting on trying
to use that um and a lot of that came actually from Mayor Dyer when this body talked about the uh renovation project the accelerator lander renovation project in December 23 he said at the end of the meeting I remember it very well we need to get these other communities invested just like we're
investing this is I want to say mine this is our effort to really give it our our best shot to do it positively because at some point this might have to be done negatively and I'd really at least like to say that we've gone out of our way to try to take positive options
to our neighboring communities before things have to get really serious and we say you got to you got to invest in this or else because that's what's happening in California right now there's people you have cities suing counties counties suing cities cities suing the states and we really need to find a positive outcome to this before it gets to that
point well I truly believe that just like the legislature passed that that legislation where we have to now deal with the the homeless if we get complaints about it you know as as a mandate i think they should have also passed a legislation where they would say based on the on the stats that I
just gave the point 2 maybe every city should have at least 0.25 25 equivalent of beds per population and I I hope we can we can push this to Tallahassee so then we will share the the the issue in terms of how to solve and I hope you run
for governor so you can make that happen we'll work together thank you i appreciate it thank you all right thank you Commissioner commissioner Rose um so Eric you and I spoke about this on several occasions so Paramore has bared the burden and has supported social
services homelessness um for decades there was a moratorum on additional services expansion but that was changed in 2022 one of the things that I have several questions my first question is will this bus necessarily
stay here every night or are there other opportunities to look for it to move around no that decision hasn't been made it would be made in partnership with the funer in this case the CRA and the city as well as the community at large which we've already been engaging in the conversation we've had a couple churches that have already expressed their
willingness to allow us to park and those are outside of the Paramore area the only thing that we would need to do in the Paramore area is pick people up you know for about an hour or so and then drop them back off the dropping them off actually Commissioner Sheen had asked me that question last week was was a good one in that um most of the people
that will be on the bus will be getting on another bus to go to work those that aren't because they're not employed can actually just stay at the Christian Service Center so they're not out wandering around or anything like that they're actually going to be able to get services so we can get them employed because we have a staffing company at the campus but no there's no plan for
exactly where the buses are going to be parked i had a conversation with one of our church partners just before coming over here they knew that this meeting was happening and you know he was willing to to share that they had met last night in anticipation of this meeting saying they would absolutely love for us to consider bringing one out there even if it's just one night a week
we'll have to install 50 amp plugins anywhere we decide to put it which is probably a $500 to $1,000 cost depending on the the building and and how it's done but I think having multiple places where they could be parked at night is actually not such a bad idea because it has to run every day 7 days a week 365
days a year so you kind of have to have backup plans for your backup plan um so I think some of the fear and concerns are new individuals coming into our community to be able to use this service what's the overall intake process look like and who ideally will
we be serving so the intake process is called intake and enrollment and effectively what we do is we follow best practice set up by housing and urban development and managed locally by the homeless services network so we use the same exact process that uh the Orange Boston family health
would use or uh the the coalition for the homeless we're doing not only the name and information gathering but you're doing a full assessment and a lot of times what we'll do is if it if it appears that it's warranted we do what's called a vulnerability assessment uh the acronym is actually VIP SPEAT and it's
is used all over the country the VIP spedat roughly works out to be a score of 0 to 20 if you and I were to take the test we would score a zero or one um but when you see somebody that scores a 19 or a 20 on the vulnerability assessment then you know that they're actually a
really good candidate for permanent supportive housing for which we have 1,600 beds throughout apartments in the community the only reason that those become available unfortunately is when someone passes away but the average length of time of this permanent housing is 12 years because most of these people are very ill so if we assess somebody
and they are extremely ill and we think they're highly qualified to to permanent supportive housing they can go on the bus temporarily until we get them into permanent supportive housing we don't think that'll be the majority but that is an option um the the the program um I
know one of the concerns is uh about having this program in Paramore um given that there's been a lot of concern that all homeless services are related in Paramore I don't disagree with that um I I would put it in a slightly different context um that I'm not sure everybody would agree with but I used to work at
another wonderful nonprofit called Give Kids the World and they are out of CMI and for me to drive from my home to there every day was an hour and 10 minutes one way and one day I went into a human resources officer and I was like "God I'm really dying with this to commute." You know it was just kind of you know complaining and venting and her
comment was "Eric I can't move the village." And that's kind of where we're at too i can't move the Christian Service Center we're we're we are where we are and so what we're trying to do is the best we can to address the issue as creatively and as innovatively as we
possibly can if the community prefers not to have us do that I totally respect that i'm I don't have any issue with that we just all we can do is what we can do and we will probably end up doing the same type of project if the city of Okoi allows us to do it we'll probably do it out there as well and if we can
find a community like Winter Park in the city of Winter Park that wants to support this type of project that would be our next stop but there's no real long-term plan for us to go and spread these around ourselves i don't really have any uh appetite for that the the goal here is to get some other
nonprofits in Leburg you know and into land to to get involved and be able to use the budgets and the best practice and the documents say "Here you go you know you good luck we'll we take calls when you have them." But the the goal here of the road show is not for me to go and do more of these i I don't have
that interest the idea is to get some of the pressure off of downtown Orlando and Paramore in particular and a couple more questions based on the funding model is the goal for the Christian Service Center to raise the funds beyond year three yeah so the funds would be a
little bit different after the third year in part because we would have spend the next three years not only building up the philanthropic base to support it which we've done with other programs over the last couple of years but we also would be able to build up some of the other grants that could support people getting housed that are on the
bus which we can actually do now so the the the funding for this project is is limited to the people that are using the bus to get housed but I have I have some other sources they're small that I might be able to use to get certain people housed so if I have a veteran for example that ends up getting on one of
the buses they're likely to not be there more than a couple days because of the SSVF program we'd be able to get them housed relatively quickly um but that that's that would be that I think I hope I answered your question yep and so I just have to make a statement so for someone who's experienced homelessness in my past I think the opportunity to
have and provide dignity which is what we're trying to do with this bus and I want everyone in the audience to realize that there are people who get up every day who have to go to work and they're sleeping on the streets this is an opportunity for someone to sleep in a bed and have some sort of dignity when they wake up in the morning time to get
to work as well as moms and dads who are experiencing homelessness who are sleeping on the streets this is an opportunity for families individuals in the community to be able to sleep while I am a Pmore resident you know we talk about and I said I mentioned it the the oversaturation of social services within
our community this is an opportunity for us to be able to show the region how we can collectively come up with solutions that don't mean multi-million dollar um homeless shelters so I want everyone in the audience to really take a moment and realize that there are people who are one paycheck away from being on the streets and it could be any one of us
that is sitting in this room someone who's experienced it to be able to say I had a bed to sleep at at night and not on the streets would have made a world of a difference so I just want to commend you for this idea and for us collectively exploring this opportunity thank you thank you Commissioner commissioner Stewart um thank you Eric
i'm not going to rehash everybody else they've you've done a great job with that um I've done a couple little bit of research wanka is getting ready to put their third and fourth bus i didn't know that um I think they've announced that in January um and they announced in their first bus that they in little old
Waket Rhode Island uh had placed 86 people in permanent housing so now I know you've talked to them in Vero Beach and I'm assuming Chicago um where are the where are the challenges that they had that we can learn from them to make
this work i think I think a lot of it has really to do with the the smaller logistics of the day-to-day operation of the buses so for example when Vero Beach first started doing this they were actually loading
people onto the buses at a program very similar to ours that they operate and then driving it to a truck stop and they were running the generators every night at the truck stop uh the costs to that became really problematic and they had people that were getting off at the truck stop to go inside and use the restrooms or take showers and it made a
lot of sense to them but over time what they realized is it it was it was more problems than it was worth and so that's they developed the rule that once you're on the bus after check-in you do not leave the bus until the next morning you certainly can get off they're not going to hold them there against their will but if you get off you're not following
the rules then you're out of the program so it's been simple things like that the security mechanisms um how to manage the this the simple cleaning types of issues you're dealing with lots of different people coming from lots of different backgrounds that's why you know we have set in here the the linens the way we
did it works out to be about $60 per set of linens because you're having to do different type of linens for you know moisture types of stuff and and so there's a lot of those little daytoday type of things that we've learned um but we're actually the plan would be that if
the city approves this our next step is actually going down to Vero Beach with a good portion of our staff and I think some of the city staff where we sit down and just have a a new conversation with them about all right this is real let's let's talk about it again let's go through let's start from you know scratch and go through the whole process
one more time i think though I don't want to speak with too much hubris but I I think that we will probably like we've done a lot of things have the opportunity for other people to learn from us and I think that's what's probably the most likely
scenario mostly here in Central Florida i mean that's what we're really counting on and I think that's one of the major benefits of the project one of the challenges I've shared with you and I've shared with this council as well is the lack of the amount of
effort outside of the city limits um that's been done we've we've seen continue challenges throughout other municipalities in the county we've seen the county um not move forward on larger stuff they we in a sense I probably
speak out of turn and get in trouble but we see that they think that what Orlando is doing is what the county's doing and you've got 1.2 million people in a county that needs help um and we're doing all we can for
350,000 um so I I I I'm concerned that that they're not this is this is an avenue that they're not taking advantage of at the same time I've heard the county talk about a lot of things that they would like to do and nothing ever seems to get actually
done i'm excited about this project and that we actually can kind of put a bow around it and say this is what the cost is now now go to Okoi now you know if you want to help Winter Park you help Winter Park i mean um and and I'd like to see them start using some of the city of Orlando money
we give them in places that work um and uh so I I'm I'm concerned about that but I think that this is a good temporary um uh solution that I've had that conversation with uh uh with Mayor
Dimmings that I think I think he's open to it we just have to figure out how do we make it work this is a good example to have them see that um but I also think that we we have to be more creative in what we're doing and this is one of those ways of being creative and innovative um
at the same time not relying on any particular community to take care of the entire burden even inside the city of Orlando um back to your budget figure the roughly about 300,000 is money that's actually gone on moving forward on
behalf of the clients okay and then the balance of that really is the cost of the equipment operation of the equipment or direct staff that you've got there um I'm a little bit familiar with the organization yeah that one this is your shirt
i think that's my shirt right um but I I think that the object of that with so many case managers you have coming with funding coming from so many different sources it's not just this source that'll help them you'll have other sources like you mentioned with veterans and other stuff that's coming
from United Way um and and I I believe that figure will be very quick i'd like to hear as you move forward and I know you're good at this i'd like to kind of see how they're moving how rapidly they're coming in like to see like a 90-day report and to say "Okay look what's happening in 90 days i mean we
thought they'd be there for 90 days they're there for about 26 days that means we can do this because I think there may be some like you said some additional funding to help them um to get post so no welcome the opportunity and you can run maybe you could run for
governor along with commissioner Ortiz maybe he could be my lieutenant governor okay Commissioner Sheen thank you what are you looking for this commissioner oh you you did okay i wasn't sure i was just freaked out by
that whole thing and I'm like what is going on what what what what universe am I in right now okay um the one thing that I did hear uh in in in these meetings was you know that we did have over the last 90 days was that people did want Orange County and other municipalities to step up so if this is
a way to encourage that that would be great i'm glad we had the conversation about what would happen be happening during the day because you know again if we just provide beds at night without providing a way for people to get services or get to work or all those other things so thank you for for answering that i know I know I have a
kind of a random question but what's the population of wound socket i don't remember it being that large i've been to Rhode Island before i actually have to look to Commissioner Stewart because I don't know what's Yeah I don't have my phone so I couldn't look it up i mean in the midfield I mean Rhode Island's as big as us but but in the municipality
area it's about 26,000 and I think it's pretty close for 26,000 people i mean that's pretty remarkable well can I can I go back to actually you make that point commissioner Ortiz says something earlier that I hope everybody didn't miss and that's that roughly in any community in the country about 02% of the population is going to be
experiencing homeless on any given given night and I actually had a conversation with Mayor Dyer when we were on the bus where I was talking about the city of Apka steve Popka has about 55,000 residents which would mean roughly that you might have about a 100 people on any given night experiencing homelessness that tracks with the last point in time
count where we counted about 45 people experiencing homelessness but we know half of people that are homeless are doing so in their cars and they're almost impossible to count so it would work out what we don't talk about is that roughly 2% of the residents of the
city of Apakka will experience homelessness this year so that changes the number a little bit it's closer to a thousand people and so I think when you start talking about this and I said this to the Apaka City Council a little over a year ago I don't know what the
threshold is but at some point you reach a certain percentage of your community that is not have a residence that's not a homelessness problem anymore that's a domestic refugee crisis and I don't know what that level is but at some point we're going to cross that level so
43,000 43 43,000 Wow okay all right fun fact for everybody to go home with the population of wounds island okay thank you Eric i think we'll move on to public testimony can I just
announce one quick thing absolutely i just want to thank the city for addressing the the issue of homelessness in in such an aggressive way as they have mayor Dyer's talked about this being one of the more difficult challenges of of your time and um I just particularly wanted to single out Orin Henry and Sonia Carnival in housing and
community development Lisa Portelli in the mayor's office David Burrill Samantha Lavine and the CRA and downtown development board that you have more people with experience that on the issue of homelessness than any other community in the area combined and um on top of
that uh I'm not sure if everybody's familiar with this but this city council has about as much experience with the issue of homelessness as any city council anywhere in the United States you've got two people who've worked in the in the issue professionally you've got two people who've actually experienced homelessness and I won't say
because that's up to them you got people who've worked in law enforcement in this community and people who've been in development in this community know all about the housing industry so this is about as good as it gets in terms of expertise and I I think if people wonder why is Orlando addressing this as aggressively as it is they just need to look at your resumes and that's that's
what's that's why it's happening i really appreciate everything you guys are doing so thank you thank you Eric and we appreciate what you're doing as well okay David I'm going to go to public testimony come here okay i have the list of everybody that signed up at
agenda review some were not present there but I'm going to go ahead and uh read everybody's name and give everybody that was on that list the opportunity to address council the rules are the same as um everything else state your name and your address you'll have three
minutes eric Lewis you said name and address do I need to be specific eric Orange County um I'll be quick my name is Eric i Eric talk towards the mic there so we can hear oh apologies my name's Eric i'm the
co-director of change a organization in Florida that works closely with the unhoused population across the region um I oversee communications and grants for the organization but I've been working we've been working with the unhoused population for well over three four five
years now um it's varying across my my other co-directors but um aside from introductions I do want to read a quote from the Stop Sodto campaign um they said and I quote "Winter Park and Winter Garden have a booming and bustling
downtown with lots of businesses families restaurants with outdoor seating all because they do not tolerate crime sodto and downtown Orlando could be that nice all it would take is some political will the things vagrants do are already crimes it's a crime to litter to aggressively panhandle to camp
on a public and private property to go out near private school while being a registered sex offender and to go to the bathroom in public mayor Buddy Dyer and Patty Shehan act like the vagrants are their constituents no we the residents of Sodto are the constituents and we
value our safety above all other policy the homeless services network published their findings in a uh point of network study for the year 2023 I think it was um so between 20 23 and 2024 there was a
105% increase in homelessness this was across the tri county so seol orange and oyola i also want to make um I also want to state that uh February of 2024 the Coalition for the Homeless uh
experienced a fire that displaced 237 247 shelter residents um and then shortly a couple months after they welcomed back 150 residents um it is also my understanding that the Orlando Health Hospital or entity institution
campaigned against this proposed brick and mortar shelter um they have a $160 million investment that is supposed to house a a list a slew of pediatric services um and I guess that kind of
wasn't appealing to them um and obviously a lot of us I'm I'm sure in here are familiar with the House Bill 1365 that took effect at the top of the year essentially criminalizing homelessness or not allowing people to
sleep or to occupy public spaces um so when I I wanted to read the direct quote just to establish context of what kind of rhetoric the unhoused population and folk who are in support of the unhoused population were up against and
what I feel like the city bent the need to i also mentioned the Orlando Health's initiative or their That's it on your time thank you okay randy Ross and then Octavian Canilli
thank you Mayor and Council i've had the pleasure over the last 32 years to work with some of you some of you on different projects i got to take a little break here because of the downness of this conversation and just remind Mayor Buddy Dyer that I will always remember launching walk a mile in
her shoes and watching him tear up a pair of heels to get from the courthouse down to uh down to the Wall Street you know I I I look at this a little bit differently i kind of thought our work was done um with the stop shelter uh effort um and I kind of then started
watching the Orlando Sentinel publish editorial after editorial not on our side of this situation but certainly publishing almost a reinvigoration of looking at the Sodto shelter again as even yesterday I believe there were two opeds that came out regarding that side
of the story um and I will also suggest to you that um I want to remind you that the stop sodto shelter people our team many of them here they're not heartless people um I know for a fact they cared deeply about the homeless population
what they were concerned about and I think it was a rightful concern was that we simply didn't believe that location was going to provide the wraparound services that we felt were necessary the dignity buses are not dignity Commissioner Rose they are that it's not
a way I would want to sleep every night um I I don't know what the right answer is and I I lived here so long that I know we've been talking about homelessness forever there are some people that really want to be homeless in our first set of arrests there was a lady um that was arrested that knew exactly where she could go to for a
resource bip she chose to sleep under I4 so I invite you to think about something after nine years this council helped produce the Pulse Memorial Task Force and now we have a memorial getting ready to be built i invite you to table this
and create a task force where it's not just this community but put the communities together and let them help you come up with a solution that we can all buy into it won't be perfect and it won't be easy and it will be painful but I remind you I think the stop ser
shelter team and everybody that you know we one of the things I want to remind you is I never thought in a million years I would be working on potentially on the project with Alana Gellzler and here we are one side one side of the interstate um and and one side of I4 working together we really want to be
part of the solution so I certainly invite you mayor and council to consider tableabling this and give us an opportunity to work with you on better solution thank you octavian Cantelli Peter Fox and remember to state your name and
address uh Octavian Kentilli 443 Page Street uh 32806 so over the past four months I've met hundreds of my neighbors from Lake Holton to Paramore young neighbors um and those young in heart neighbors with
kids and without liberal and conservative neighbors neighbors living in $300,000 homes and a few in $3 million homes i read over a thousand personal stories about concerns regarding our city's homeless pop policy
um I also remember reading how uh the city's senior adviser on homelessness acknowledged how the best ideas sometimes come out during community engagement however over the past four months only Commissioner Ortiz has made time to engage with our communities in a
in a productive manner and the city hasn't hosted a single homeless policy event um mayor why um are you so hesitant to conduct and participate in community engagement why is transparency
and community engagement not priorities when formulating solutions uh for our homeless population why do you think why do you think constituents who blindly support your policy while ridiculing those who express legitimate concerns
why is this unpopular policy up for vote without having a detailed answer to many of your constituents concerns you know very well that this new state law banning um camping is not new the truth is Orlando has had an ordinance against
camping since 1980 um which has been enforced under your watch 14 years ago a homeless man sued the city of Orlando for enforcing uh its camping ban ordinance and the city litigated the enforcement of this ordinance all the way to the 11th
Circuit Court of of Appeals which uh um which ruled that the law was constitutional in 2021 yet I keep hearing you say that this new state law is new and it criminalizes homelessness
no mayor you know very well all it does is give residents a way to hold their municipalities accountable for not enforcing laws that have been in the books for decades while also providing a temporary solution instead of an ultraexpensive disaster bus idea why
don't you explore the truly bold idea of opening for example micro shelters dispersed among all municipalities um approved all at the same time or how about buying land for use as a secure adult-tononly single sex detox
encampment with wraparound services or my favorite exploring multi uh modern construction techniques where you could build 400 foot hurricane rated homes for under $15,000 at scale the short answer would be that you've
come to this issue in the last three months you never once thought about it prior to us looking at that Kaye site i've been at this for 20 years the first task force I set up speaking of task forces was one on homelessness in the city of Orlando it was chaired by
Commissioner Stewart and my then wife who is deceased now that led to a task force that was more regional in nature which led to the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness so we have been at this work for a long time it's not easy i appreciate you now paying
attention to this work in the last three months but if you are serious about this you could have been on this truck for a long lot longer time than that thank you for your ideas my name is Peter Fox first uh mayor and commissioner thank you for allowing me
to be here and mayor if I go over by 30 seconds i've been a resident at 950 Lancaster Drive for over 35 years and I'd like to at least finish what I wrote first of all you all need to know that I
personally have a heart for the homeless and feel it is our obligation to help them but like other difficult social problems that need solving we must study the impacts on our community i do not believe that the city of Orlando has
adequately done that at least I have not seen any studies to that effect i am here to ask you all to respectfully consider postponing the dignity bus funding here is what I would like you all to think about before you
rubber stamp this spending why does our homeless population within the downtown core area continue to grow especially in Paramore which already is overrun with the homeless and provides more than their fair share of beds why is the
answer always to build more the fact is that given current trends by itself Orlando will never have enough beds adding more beds only exasperates the problem you can't put 20 pounds of
sugar in a 10 pound bag when I recently asked Orange County and Orange County Commissioner how many beds the county provides outside of Orlando the answer was "We don't have homeless shelters we fund other shelters in the city of
Orlando." In other words they provide little to no beds just funny to keep the homeless in downtown Orlando no wonder our numbers keep growing on July 18th 2022 the city held a public
workshop in regard to the allocation of the American Rescue Act for government services fund the city approved that according to your records you approved the spending of
that money on government services which were allocated to the city salaries of 4 million plus and 53 almost 54 million was added to uh city
salaries that's a total of 58 million and change then came the Accelerate Orlando fund where the pot of federal rescue bunny plan money was placed since October of
2021 to July 24 the city recovery plan for the use of these funds has changed three times according to the city's website the city has already spent 43 million of the 58 million pot to preserve housing options for residents
of all income levels in their effort to tackling two of your of Orlando's most daunting challenges homeless and affordable housing now today on your consent agenda you want to approve
another 3,400,000 here's what I you all might consider do doing postpone the decision until you have done a new study not on the cost of things but the suitability of adding more homeless beds in the city of Orlando to better understand the
effects on our neighborhoods and our businesses especially in Paramore an area that is already feeling the negative impacts of housing too many of the homeless meet with Orange County meet with Orange County officials and
find a long-term solution not a band-aid share the results of those meetings with us orange County has more money and more land than we do and most importantly currently they are not materially helping us with the nightly unhoused
homeless that wander our streets and neighborhoods find better locations other than within the city limits of Orlando be the leaders that your constituents count on remember that Orlando is the city beautiful and our
strength is not only in how we treat others including the homeless but also in the safety and sanctity of our neighborhoods in the end that's what makes our land beautiful thank you okay Commissioner Hill
thank you and good afternoon uh mayor and commission um I'm not uh uh saying I'm not in support of this initiative actually mayor and councel this initiative was birthed in my office i
had Lisa Portelli Eric Gray city staff uh go after me doing research on these dignity buses um but what we did discuss uh prior to my uh me leave having to leave office was that it wouldn't be housed in
Paramore another component I want to be uh clear on is that uh in 2022 uh I I didn't resend the mortorium in Paramore it was only to expand the women
and children's shelter so here we are uh with this uh initiative uh my ask today mayor and council is that we do consider not housing the buses in the paramore area as you know we have about six other
shelters there it's heavily concentrated with homelessness what I saw was a dissension because of the concentration of homelessness businesses going out of business uh the residents are now uh calling we was not notified i know it
was stated in the presentation that some of the HOAs was notified but they were presidents it wasn't the coalition of the community that was notified nor had the we found out on the news uh on Saturday morning about the location uh
so that's what I uh the people are really concerned about along with the mortorium i know that ship has passed we wasn't notified that a mortorium uh for shelters and paramore and other services had been lifted until this weekend um so
so you know for for us it's it's very sad uh what's going on in district 5 because of lack of accountability and transparency we just want engagement we want to be a part of the dialogue and conversation and it was promised that no
more shelters i know this isn't brick and mortar but it is a emergency shelter in the text of it though it's on wheels so uh mayor if the council and yourself can consider the placement and location
of these buses we the people of district 5 and especially paramore that is you know I I I know Eric Gray has done great work but it's still a major problem even in front of his uh uh Christian service center where people aren't going in to
get those services we gave $2 million for first up uh uh uh uh staffing that was located right inside of the building they don't go in to seek the services they don't go in to get case management they're hanging out around the on on the
steps of the building there's no security so mayor I think we do need to not look at this further i support this as I said I am the surrogate of this initiative but it has not been thought
through fully on how we're going to implement it and where thank you for Thank you Commissioner L lameia Mukadam you can pronounce your name better than I did I think probably absolutely y uh so my name is Lemi Moadm
uh I am also a co-founder of Change Harm Reduction we are the first queer trans bipok uh harm reduction organization in the state of Florida uh and I do just want to quickly say before before I get into this that a lot of you do know me um from from various disruptions and for
the fight for a free Palestine uh and so I hope that that does not provide any bias to what I am trying to say and advocate for um because that will always you know that that is my identity and that will always be at the forefront um free Palestine uh but I I want to talk
about also my work in community because a lot of times all you all see me as is the whatever the person yelling on the mic um but I have been serving at Christian service center for the past four years uh via HIV testing when I worked for the LGBT plus center Orlando
i was the outreach manager um I helped neighborhood fridge get a partnership with the Christian Service Center where we now uh distribute 300 meals every single week um doing harm reduction services i was in charge of the only string exchange program in in Central
Florida in Orange County um and now with our work with uh with Change Florida we are continuing to serve our community uh primarily off of Mercy Drive uh in these unhoused encampments these these people that you all uh don't get the numbers for uh as far as homelessness because
they they are hidden they are our invisible community um to say that I I have been working with the most marginalized communities for years uh and in coming up with solutions moving forward including things like food sovereignty where uh in in district 5 we've just launched uh at
the South Street Garden a a garden with collaboration with neighborhood fridge and and putting that produce directly into the fridge so just to say I I am somebody who has put in actionable effort uh and solutions that have been successful and have been working with this community and the one thing that I
have not seen is this community having a voice in any of this um we want to talk about this bus and and we are not here to oppose the bus because something is better than nothing um but we are here to oppose the hate group that is stop shelter their talking points are racist
they are classist they are inept they want to protect their properties their businesses all of which they are hoarding uh and they speak about our houseless community as though they are not part of our community they speak of themselves as they are the residents and our houseless people are vagrants this
is racist this is hate speech and after speaking to our house's community they have been in these communities longer than all of us they have been established for decades uh and really just want to say that in the language that we use when we speak
about our community that it is our community it is not othering them uh I I don't remember I I I highly doubt any of you all have looked somebody who's unhoused in the face uh in the eyes probably ever uh we did look into some of you all you you own uh
businesses you're all primarily white cis men wealthy um you should not be the voice and you should not be the violent people that are pushing uh that are pushing our community members toward death okay because no housing leads to
death shame on y'all moana [Applause] Gellzer and then farra al jalad Lana Gellzer 815 Hill Street who is Lana Gellzer my family moved to Paramore in
1971 but we've owned the property since 1948 lana Gelza family has owned a business at Paramore for 45 years lana Gelza family was not just business owners but Lana Gellza has found a way to get federal funds from Hersa CDC the
National Council of Agent and even the EPA lana Gellza moved back to Parmore about two and a half years ago lana Gellza can't serve on any committees for the city or anybody else so the voice of Paramore has not been
heard those are just some of my qualifications so you had a meeting on February the 11th but what you failed to say about the Paramore Council is only four members of that council reside in Parore and I was here February 10th fighting
against a six-story facility for children women and children i didn't say we didn't need it i just said Paramore has been burdened most of the people that fought for the policies have moved on to glory including my mother and my
father you have rescended it every time you wanted to do something in Pairmore so why am I here if you build it right it will work you're not building it right you don't know the impact and I've come here and said I've had to add
actual cameras security and everything to make sure I'm safe in the pair more a feasibility study you don't know how to do one evidently because feasibility will show you that you're building the wrong things we've given you solutions
over and over again but this right here you did exactly what you always do you didn't include the community because you didn't want to hear what we had to say sometime difficult conversations come up with the best of plans that's all I've
ever come to this council and said include us in we know what's best for us we're not against you but stop thinking you know what's best for us so if that's the case stop charging me property taxes because you won't fix my roads you won't
do a whole lot of things but in the end I just want to say to everybody this is bad but one thing a lot of people fail to understand about Paramore 1.4 square miles 33% is owned by the city of Orlando when I was in
Selma I went to 10 home modular homes under $100,000 to be built there are solutions but sometime you got the wrong people at the table that's why we've created our table and we invite you to come and meet with us regularly cuz we
have solutions we're not bitter we're just fed up with the process and how we've been treated over the years so I've been coming for over 20some years to talk about what's going on in my community because I care and I believe in the people thank you farra Al
Gelad for Al Galad Rich Black and then Elizabeth Rea good afternoon Mayor Council all concerned i'm Rich Black located at 2201
Lake Sunset Drive Orlando Florida president of the Lake Sunset Neighborhood Association i'm here this morning i'm Patty Sheen i sort of kind of know what you faced when folks show up at your house and say "What are you going to do about this?" Because this is happening you really know don't know
anything of what they're talking about um I'm faced with a situation that the buses I know Eric I know our commissioner Shan Rose no one has brought this to the community so what happens when that doesn't take place
people start filling in the board other individuals start hijacking the process and negative information is set out um what we would like to do and what I've been asked to do as the president of Lake Sunset is that is ask that this be put on hold until we have a meeting with
the HOAs in West Lakes and in District 5 that we can talk about how the buses would work the impact and what we can really bring together to deal with the issue of the homeless population in District 5 um I've never in my life may
have thought that I would agree with Lana Gelza but I will agree today that there needs to be a conversation um Commissioner Rose um I know you said that you visited with the HOAs i only saw one HOA that was there which was
Lake Dot um we had no clue this was happening and when we're not communicating um we are creating division so if we can sort of kind of table this have a quick discussion share with others I would have you to know I think that it is a
great process to maybe have these buses that would work to house them in um district 5 i don't know if that's the route to go i think that there are other communities what if perception is reality it's perceived in the community that if things um things didn't work in
so we're back to the drawing board with district 5 um with the mor moratorum being moved my concern is how far will we continue to build to accommodate the issue of homelessness in central Florida um hopefully someone can answer me that
hopefully that has not been rescended to the point that we would just take advantage of that and district 5 become a dumping ground if we don't have the leadership of the mayor who's sensitive what's going on new leadership administration comes about and they take
advantage of the situation so we're very concerned as homeowners as business owners we're concerned about where we've invested our monies and our families of growing up in so thank you Elizabeth Reena
followed by Tracy Anderson hello my name is Jalisbeizabeth Reena i'm a resident of Orange County Florida i'm here today as a concerned member of our community i'm here because leadership is not about avoiding hard choices is about making them even when they may seem unpopular i understand that plans to build a shelter for
unhoused people were dropped after push back we all know why the shelter was proposed homelessness is rising people are suffering and yet when push back came the plan was dropped there will always be push back to doing the right thing but leadership means standing firm especially when the most vulnerable
among among us are counting on us i also don't believe anyone should be con conceding to the demands of people who call their own community members dehumanizing names such as and I quote vagrants that is a disgusting and extremely upsetting way to talk about the most vulnerable members of our
community this language is used by the people in opposition to the shelter should be enough to understand the actions they are asking you to take matches their tone of dehumanization and negligence please stand your ground against this additionally these additionally these people aren't
advocating for solutions or a fair distributions of shel of shelters but instead are fighting to stop this one that's not advocacy it's deflection without the South Downtown Shelter homelessness will not disappear it will become more visible and chaotic
what they're really saying is and I quote "Poor people should stay where we don't have to see them." as members of the council and as our mayor that you you say that you believe every resident deserves safety dignity and a place to sleep so why abandon this shelter now if
we let fear and stigma dictate policy what does that say about who we are as a city this shelter isn't just a building it's a lifeline and right now it's the bare minimum we need affordable housing mental health services real solutions but this this is the first step and you are on the right path so I'm asking you
don't back down revisit this decision show the courage your your title demands history doesn't remember leaders who folded under pressure it remembers those who stood firm when it mattered the people sleeping on our streets tonight don't need excuses they need action do the right thing recommmit to the shelter
plan and with it rebuild hope thank you thank you Tracy Anderson Rashawn Moore Chelsea Kent Tilly good afternoon i'm Tracy Anderson i live at 2801 Lake Sunset Drive my concern is
that the homeless homeless situation is not fully being addressed the buses sound really great i hope it does work but there has to be a better solution to get these people out of homelessness and and re reunite them
with the um the society i want to see these people get a real chance a real shot the bus again I say the bus sounds good and I agree with Lana i also agree with Rich and Regina as well but the problem is is that the
community is not being engaged they're not being told what's going on we all have solutions that might be helpful if we could sit down at a table at some point and talk about what's really going on and how this can help each other the homeless people should also have a
representative that talks about what's going on with them in the as a homeless i never been homeless so I don't know what that's like but it has to be a solution that works for everybody because if it don't work for anybody it's not going to work for everybody it's not going to work for anybody so please when you decide to do these
things look at everything that's on the table the people that's going to be affected the homeless people that are still trying to figure out where they're going to sleep tonight or where they're going to get something to eat cuz they're out there i've been out with some friends of mine to take out soup
and pass out sandwich to people and this homeless situation is bad and we really really really got to do something about it if we don't it's going to destroy us all also the landlords need to consider how much they're charging for these rents these rents need to be brought
brought back into control the people are renting they're not buying you can never get to to build your own dream or see your own things come to fruition if you're paying all this high money in rent please let's get together and walk work on this all of us so that we can
get this thing taken care of thank you thank you Rashawn Moore and then Chelsea Canilli good afternoon Mayor and the commissioners so glad to be here i just want to um I wrote something here but I'm going to kind of go off strip right
now um I just want y'all to know that I have personally experienced homelessness so I'm not here today to go against homelessness i want you guys to also know that I wear three hats today i am the president of Macfall Neighborhood
Association i also sit on the board at the Christian Service Center and I am also an advocate for the homeless so I want you to know I know homeless people and I know them by name and I want you to know this is not about the homeless people this is about having the bus
inside of the Paramore district added to the community without the input of the community so I want to say to Commissioner Rose it is very important we had a task force before as mayor um stated and that task force was very um
it it was it was great because it allow everyone in the community to um the leaders in the community especially to come together and talk about what it is that we're trying to do in our homeless community and I just ask that you actually start that task force back up
as well as make sure the community has an input in what's going on in our community because they heard this stuff on the news and so they gave calls people start talking and stuff like that so I am not opposed to the bus i think
it's a great thing but the community has spoken macfall residents have spoken we don't want it to reside just in Paramore we have other districts that are represented here commissioners that that bus can go sit in your communities um we
want to see that Orange County also takes um responsibility in this we want it to be community um community um county and the commissioners that sit and make help us to get a resolution so that's all I'm
going to say i didn't go off of this but I just want to thank you guys um please know that this is not about not having the dignity bus it is about the transparency we need to see in our district 5 and that we need to see our
leader you Rose please bring us to the table and have these conversations even with everything in our community um and especially when it comes to our homeless population because we do not want it to continue to grow in our community only
chelsea Canilli and then Brian Posawa Chelsea Cantelli 443 Page Street um Roman playwright Terrence said nothing human is alien to me and um there's nothing dehumanizing about talking about normal
Unfortunately all across the globe all across history human behavior such as crime you can be a violent felon unfit to be around children and still be human in excuse me if I'm going to be heckled I like more time
i appreciate you spending your time everybody was respectful when you had your opportunity okay okay just chill could I please have my time back all right everybody be respectful of
everybody else okay thank you you can have your three minutes thank you sir um in 3286 and 3281 28% of registered sex offenders have addresses listed as transient or temporary and I counted those numbers
myself and I urge everyone to check my work go on the sex offenders registry and count them in addition I understand Mr grace says that most unhoused people recently resided in um Orange County but if you look them up you can see where they were sentenced for their felonies
for offenses for example uh for children under age 12 i only counted two that were sentenced in Orange County all the rest come from the rest of America other places in Florida they come here because we have good weather and we have very generous homeless services now to pick
on Winter Park specifically because they recently received a grant to combat homelessness and they're using it to fund two full-time police officers to quote lend a ride to local facilities and on their homeless services website the facilities with beds listed are all
in downtown Orlando so their grant is to put people in the back of police cruisers drive them to my neighborhood and drop them off that's not fair we have more than done our share we would like to ask for this mayor and this council to protect us and take a stand
and push back for the entire tri county area leeching off of our homeless services picking everybody up and bringing them so that then they can spend their tax money on their you know gifted programs and their schools and their roads and leave us to mop everything up we don't mind taking care
of our people but if you continue opening up more services then everybody else is going to do nothing but if you push back and protect us you know like a like a medieval baron protecting his village from invaders you should protect
us i mean it um we deserve to spend our tax money on our people not on everybody else in the tri county area so we don't want this bus we want to put a stop to this and say we've done enough we've done more than enough let someone else
pick up their share and when someone from Cassumi Maitland Winter Park Winter Garden Lake Nona tries to drive their homeless people and drop them off here so they can forget about them we would like to see some push back um thank you very much
Brian good afternoon brian Posttoate uh 726 Albertson Place Orlando um I am also uh the chief operating officer of Homeless Services Network uh good afternoon Mayor Dyer commissioners
um I also am a I also am a resident and neighbor in south south downtown neighborhood and have been active in some of the conversations with uh my neighbors uh HSN's a lead agency for the continuum
of care and so uh we've been one of the most successful in the nation in bringing more dollars into this community as a result of the collaboration and conversations that have been happening in our community over the past few years no one doubts
that homelessness is not a difficult and challenging is not a it's not a challenging dilemma but this community has been working very hard together for many years under the leadership of Mayor Dyer commissioners who care very much
for the about this it's very hard to sit up here and hear misinformation um about homelessness very difficult and I for many of you to sit here and to listen to uh um
uh people talk about what we're not doing and because I know we're all working hard we know that there's much more to be done um together um people are literally dying on our streets
we have more unsheltered persons in our community than we did five years ago twice as many as we did five years ago any place you go and try to talk about another homeless shelter being added in the neighborhood is is up in up in arms and so what are we going to do
we're going to try to do these innovative kind of things i got to admit I was initially against the idea of a bus shelter um but uh uh the way that they have designed this is really ingenious
shelter at its best is a process it is a pathway to housing and healing and the Christian Service Center has proved itself for the last few years and moving many many people as quickly as possible into housing the Coalition for the Homeless
is doing that everyone in our community is doing that we have homelessness sure we got homeless across the community but we really need to begin working on innovative solutions this is one this is an opportunity for 47 people to move
from homelessness to housing we got to do something we got to keep pushing and we need everyone in the conversation talking about how we're going to do something how we're going to continue to make move this forward not just today not just because this is going to be successful but in order for us to be
successful we've got to build more housing and yes we need shelter as an opportunity for people to get services so they can move into housing also thank you thank you Brian okay that's all the requests for public comment that I have do we have a motion second motion by
Commissioner Rose second by Commissioner Sheen discussion Commissioner Burns yeah yeah uh fellow commissioners I you know I think we are as we continue to uh you know grapple with homelessness uh
I do want to just say thank you for uh the approach that we have taken you know I've heard a couple of people say that the city is not doing anything i've been I grew up here have been in this homeless fight for over 21 years as the CEO of the healthcare center for the
homeless and so I know what the city the city has done and I just want to say thank you thank you mayor for for your leadership uh when we talk about this dignity bus and I'll I'll be open that when I first heard about it um I wasn't
excited about it i said we don't we need true solutions not a gimmick and I may even have shared that with uh with Martha R uh but then I thought back to my time when I became the CEO of the health center and I proposed rolling out
a mobile medical unit and then a mobile dental unit people told me that I was crazy uh fast forward now we have six seven of those units who are out in the community providing uh providing services so I'm all about uh a
innovative innovative approach and so for for that I will be supporting uh the dignity bus but I also want to make sure that we understand that uh as I understand the individuals on this bus who will be eligible to ride on this or
sleep on this bus are already at the Christian Service Center every day all right they're at the Christian Service Center every day to be eligible for this you have to be engaged with the Christian Service Center have some type of income some type of employment so I
I'm I don't see where this dignity bus will be bringing more individuals experiencing homelessness into par more uh so I I don't think that that will happen i'm interested to see I am I was concerned about the price tag uh it's
probably not the most cost effective approach um because after the 3 years we will have to see how the operational funding is um is raised uh so I I stand uh committed to supporting this but also
uh we have to look at truly true solutions to homelessness because nothing ends homelessness but housing and I think we have to be as a council uh more aggressive in our approach in leading those those uh permanent housing
uh solutions uh Commissioner Gray mentioned what can be done to lower the cost of development uh Commissioner GR I have a I have a idea what what I really think needs to happen is that the city needs to revisit
how we uh build how we fund build and operate affordable housing i think that we have an opportunity within the city to be more aggressive and looking at you know how can we fund these these initiatives looking at um uh mortgage
mortgage bonds you know you really leveraging the full credit of the city to get some bonds that will be can be uh dedicated to affordable housing but also that in itself won't reduce the cost but if we look at who are we bringing on
board to develop these uh these projects if you look at a project we have a project going up in my district 97 units senior units that's going to be a $30 million project $38,000 per unit all right i'm excited
about this uh but when we look at it my question is where's the profit margin you know it's probably roughly up to a 20 25% profit margin that goes into that so what the city could do we could hire a GC to coordinate the development of
these types of properties uh so then that we won't be tasked with that uh that 20% profit it's not about making a profit but about making sure that we have a a solution in our community so those are some just to answer your question Commissioner Gray uh uh you
know some of the ideas and I think that's what we need to start looking at because if I look at the $58 million that we received um for Accelerate Orlando through the um the American Rescue Plan we've committed 23 million
of those 40% of that right now we have 34 million uh or 60% still left to be allocated and I think we need to truly be strategic in how we plan to use those additional 34 million and can we
leverage that 34 million uh with some bonds or with something that will give us the resources that we need to truly build housing that's truly affordable for for our community so So I think that that's what we what we need to do because if we continue to you know we're
going to have some projects that will continue to come before us uh and we will be considering them but I think we need to have a coordinated strategic approach to how do we leverage this addition this 34 million that's still left with all the uh all the other
leveraging opportunities that we have within the city uh and so that again I will be supporting this uh project and look forward to uh continue to work on homelessness together thank you Commissioner commissioner Rose so I've heard from everyone in the audience i
will be meeting with staff to consider um how do we reinvamp the homeless task force and so we will reach out um if you all do not please email my office and we will work on creating a task force and allowing you all to seat at the table so that we could talk about this
comprehensively i would like for us while we're talking about affordable housing and Commissioner Burns brought it up there are five of there are four other districts in this city that we need to explore how do we build affordable housing within those communities we continue to build in five and six and so homelessness and low
income is not just in district five so I want us as we're talking about solutions and opportunities when we're exploring to say that what what else can be built in other communities people are all over this city and they're they're having um homeless issues i also would like for us to look at I know that the county is
doing a utilization study i would like for us to review that as a as a city council to see what uh facilities and buildings are within the city limits that we can look at and we could collaboratively work on to address homelessness and housing outside of
district 5 so again um thank you anybody else so I will invite the county and any of the other municipalities to join us in addressing the issue of homelessness i'd be very happy to have some of them
do that however Orlando is a compassionate city and we're not going to wait on them if stuff needs to be done we're always the point of the spear and we're not going to stop doing that if there are people that need to be helped if the county is
not going to help us help them we'll do it ourselves so the argument that we should pressure them into doing something we shouldn't do anything else for the people that are living under the highway i don't buy into that um we're going to continue doing what we do and
that's helping the least fortunate among us all in favor of the vote all in favor of the motion indicates so saying I those opposed motion carries okay let's um recess the city council meeting david
would you like to move to the CRA yes ma'am thank you and those of you who are just for that we'll take 30 seconds if there are people that would like to leave the meeting before we start the CRA meeting you're free to do that yep commissioner
Okay David let's start CRA meeting thank you mayor so item one under the CRA is an amendment to our focus area map that's in relation to our DTO retail and restaurant program as you will remember in 2023 uh we we created and
kind of redefined these programs in order to target more retail as well as restaurants and more recently food halls into downtown Orlando our focus areas are those areas where we're also strategically investing with other CRA resources and are really seeking to gain more traction and uh more excitement for
places to people to visit and patronize uh the amendment specifically looks to expand our focus area um really going from Magnolia which is currently eastern boundary over to Rosland uh as you know we are currently embarking on significant investments along Lake Eola
and then ultimately with the DTO action plan along Rosland as well um so this would extend those focus areas from the Livingston on the northern side um all the way down to Pine Street on the southern side again out to Roslin it is approximately um 25 acres of additional
area into that focus area map motion by Commissioner Sheen second by Commissioner Stewart discussion hearing none in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those opposed motion carries okay 4b uh
so this uh mayor is again is the funding agreement for the Christian Service Center for this 407 connect project this is specifically for the CRA's investment uh again it is approximately $1 million annually in operating funds for three years and I'm happy to address any additional questions motion by
Commissioner Rose second by Commissioner Sheen discussion hearing none all in favor the motion indicates so by saying I those opposed motion carries david any further business to come before the CRA that is all mayor then we will stand adjourned and we will reconvene the city
council meeting okay that brings us to hearings madame clerk would you read the hearing related to the special assessment area decorative street lighting project final assessment resolution and
nonadvelorum assessment role of the Ottoman place special assessment area decorative street lighting project a final assessment resolution of the city council of the city of Orlando Florida authorizing and adopting the non-AD Valorum assessment within the Ottabon Place special assessment area for the purpose of paying all or a portion of
the cost of the decorative street lighting project paying other project financing and collection costs related there too making certain findings and determinations of special benefit and the logical relationship between the decorative street lighting project and the benefit received specifying the
estimated capital cost of the decorative street lighting project to be assessed and the total amount to be levied against each benefited parcel specifying the unit of measurement for and the estimated maximum annual amount of said assessment to be levied against each benefited property within the described
area specifying the numbers of years said assessment is to be levied providing for the prepayment and acceleration of the special assessment providing for adjustments to the amount of the assessment adopting the non-advelorum assessment rule subject to adjustment as provided for herein
confirming the approvals authorizations delegations specifications findings and determinations contained in the initial assessment resolution for the Ottoman place special assessment area adopted by city council on February 24th 2025 stating the effect of the final
assessment resolution providing for certain other actions authorizations approvals and delegations of authority in relation thereto providing for severability and an effective date so move okay on February 24th 2025 city council
adopted the initial assessment resolution for the Ottabon Place special assessment area the final assessment resolution finally approves and authorizes the levy collection enforcement of a non-adform assessment with the Ottabon Place special assessment area the revenues from such
assessment will be used to pay one half of the cap capital cost of the purchase and installation of decorative street lights along Ottabon Place from Reading to Edgewater Court and for other financing and collection costs related there too the total amount of the
assessment without interest is $22,5353 which constitutes $2,487 per parcel pursuant to the city's decorative street lighting policy the other one half of the cost of the purchase and installation of decorative street lights will be paid by the city
city staff recommends approval and adoption of the proposed final assessment resolution and notice of hearing was duly advertised in the Orlando Sentinel um we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart second by Commissioner RDTS to adopt the proposed
final assessment resolution and nonadalorum assessment role i do not have any requests from the public to testify so we will open and close the public hearing is there discussion hearing none none all in favor of the motion indicate so by
saying I i those opposed and so the motion carries madame clerk would you read the second resolution resolution of intent to use the uniform method for collection of special assessments for the Ottoman Place special assessment area decorative
street lighting project a resolution of the city council of the city of Orlando Florida expressing its intent to use a uniform method for collection of non-advelor special assessments in the Ottoman place special assessment area for a period greater than one year stating the need for the levy of such
non-advelor special assessments providing a legal description of the real property subject to the levy and providing for the mailing of this resolution by the statutory deadline so moved second okay on February 24th 2025 the city
council adopted an initial assessment resolution for the imposition of a special assessment upon benefited properties located with the within the Ottabon Place special assessment area from Reading Drive to Edgewater Court for the payment of certain costs associated with decorative street
lighting pursuant to section 197.3632 Florida statutes the city's authorized to have the levying collection of the nonadalorum assessment administered by the Orange County property appraiser and tax collector provided the city meets certain notice
requirements and adopts a resolution expressing its intent to use the uniform method of collection for such non-advelorum assessment the city has complied with the notice requirements must now consider adoption of the attached resolution of intent upon adoption the city will provide the
required copies of the resolution of intent to the Orange County Property Appraiser the Orange County Tax Collector and the Florida Department of Revenue um Commissioner Stewart um made a motion to adopt the proposed resolution of intent seconded by
Commissioner Ortiz we have no requests for public testimony so I will open and close the public hearing and ask if there's discussion seeing no discussion all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those
opposed and so the motion carries okay madame clerk let's see that brings us to hearings ordinances first reading ordinance number 2025-12 an ordinance of the city council
of the city of Orlando Florida relating to zoning districts and uses amending provisions of the land development code to clarify location requirements for freestanding emergency rooms permitted uses in the public use zoning district and amending definitions providing legislative findings and for
severability codification correction of scrier's error and an effective date second motion by Commissioner Sheen second by Commissioner Stewart sorry Commissioner that was your ordinance wasn't it commissioner Stewart yep it's all It's for It's for the whole city go ahead you make the motion i'll second
okay i make the motion okay show the motion being made by Commissioner Stewart and the second by Commissioner Sheen i have no request for public testimony discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those opposed motion carries
commissioner this ordinance requires a public hearing after 5:00 unless we vote by a supermajority to hold the second public hearing at our normal city council meeting time staff recommends that we hold the second public hearing at the next available regularly scheduled city council meeting beginning
at 2:00 do I hear such a motion motion by the entire council but showed us by commissioner Stewart second by Commissioner Ortiz um discussion hearing none i'll fay the motion in case so by saying I I
those opposed and so the motion carries okay let's move on to hearings ordinances on second reading 12A madame Clerk ordinance number 2024-54 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Orlando Florida amending
the city's growth management plan to change the future land use map designation for certain land generally located north of East Concord Street east of North Mills Avenue south of Hillrest Street and west of Shine Avenue comprised of 0.75 acres of land more or less from office low inensity to
community activity center in part changing the property zoning designation from lowintensity office residential with a traditional city overlay to community activity center with a traditional city overlay in part providing for amendment of the city's official future land use and zoning maps providing for serverability correction
of scrier's errors permit disclaimer and an effective date second motion by commissioner Sheen second by commissioner Rose I do not have any request for public input discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I those opposed
motion carries uh 12B ordinance Ordinance number 2025-6 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Orlando Florida vacating closing and abandoning a portion of Rockmont Court generally located east of Edgewater Drive and west of Fairway Lane between 3707 Edgewater
Drive and 926 Rockmont Court as described in the Edgewater Court plat as recorded in plat book S page 92 of the public records of Orange County Florida and comprised of 0.41 41 acres of land more or less providing for conditions of abandonment providing for the execution of affecting documents severability
correction scrier's error and effective date move motion by commissioner Stewart who was commissioner Rose second by commissioner Rose I don't have any request for public comment discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I those opposed
motion carries 12c ordinance number 2025-7 an ordinance of the city council of City of Orlando Florida amending the boundaries of the Bishop Morland Development Zoning District such land being generally located east of Edgewater Drive west of Greens Avenue and north of Dow Avenue amending the
special land development regulations and development plan providing a conforming legal description providing for servability corruption of scrier's error and an effective date so move motion by Commissioner Stewart second by Commissioner Rose again I have no request for public input discussion
hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I I those opposed motion carries and 12D ordinance number 2025-8 an ordinance of the city council of the city of of Orlando Florida amending chapter 2 of the code of the city of Orlando entitled administration
to change certain provisions in section 2.44 2.59 and 2.60 6 regarding public meetings and providing for severability codification correction of scrier's error and an effective date motion by Commissioner Rose second by Commissioner Stewart i have no requests
for public input discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those opposed motion carries okay ordinances on first read 13A madam clerk ordinance number 2025-9 an ordinance of the city of Orlando Florida annexing to the
corporate limits of the city certain land generally located south of Arthur Avenue west of Edgewater Drive and east of Grant Boulevard and a portion of Arthur Avenue generally located to the east of Grant Boulevard and to the westerly portion of Edgewater Drive and comprised of 0.65 65 acres of land more
or less and amending the city's boundary description amending the city's adopted growth management plan to designate the property as mixed use corridor medium intensity and resource protection on the city's official future land use maps designating the property as medium intensity mixeduse corridor with the
Waka resource protection and appearance review overlays on the city's official zoning maps providing for amendment of the city's official future land use and zoning maps providing for serability correction of scrimmers errors permit disclaimer and an effective date so moved second motion by Commissioner
Stewart second by Commissioner Sheen and I have no requests for public comment discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I i those opposed and so the motion carries that is all of the official agenda
business today ed would you get us ready for public comment [Music] [Music] [Music]