Lee County Homeless Coalition provides update on homelessness
As rents become more expensive and even too expensive for some, more and more individuals and families are finding themselves without a roof over their heads.
Even worse, this although many have fulltime jobs, meaning that it costs more to live in a home or apartment than people earn in Lee County.
This is the problem Therese Everly, executive director of the Lee County Homeless Coalition, explained to the North Fort Myers Civic Association during its July meeting at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center.
The issue is a complex one that is overwhelming independent agencies that address the issue. The coalition is just that, a collection of agencies working to together to help those experiencing homelessness or at risk of it, making it easier for them to navigate their way back to self-sufficiency.
The hope is that homelessness is rare, brief and one-time, but numbers have been on the increase due to the lack of attainable housing, with rents on a one-room apartment climbing to as much as $2,000 per month.
Everly said while they have the network of organizations willing to help, the community at-large isn’t quite as receptive, especially when those who are homeless or at-risk receive vouchers to help pay for housing.
“It’s hard to find landlords that are willing to accept the rent the vouchers provide. One veteran called 100 places the nobody would accept the rent,” Everly said. “If the voucher is worth $1,100, that all the landlord can charge. It’s not just this region, but a national issue.”
Everly sees as a growing concern the number of seniors losing their homes because many are retired and on a fixed income, with Social Security being their only income.
“There’s a 74-year-old woman who shared an apartment with someone who would die from COVID. She could no longer afford that rent,” Everly said.
When speaking about the subject, Everly uses the term “experiencing homelessness” because she does not want to stigmatize someone.
This is happening even to people who work for the county.
“There’s a woman who’s worked for the Lee County School District for 13 years, and she’s a single mom with a 5-month-old baby and is going to be homeless shortly,” Everly said. “She makes a decent wage but her rent has gone up astronomically, she got a second job and now that job is gone.”
Everly also serves on the Lee Health board of directors and she is seeing homelessness among teachers, health care workers, people in law enforcement.
“If we can’t stop the working homeless or at risk of being homeless, we’re going to have a really big number on the other end,” Everly said.
There are some attainable housing projects being planned for Lee County, with one in North Fort Myers on Cleveland Avenue starting to come to life.
Some projects will have some apartments that will go to the people who have the least while others will be at fair market value. This is something Everly said she would love to see.
Among the things the Homeless Coalition has done work with the Clerk of Courts in Lee County through Operation Greenlight, which helps people regain their drivers license by having charges associated with fines forgiven.
They ended up holding court in a church gym with a judge, the Clerk of Courts and the Tax Collector’s Office, and 52 individuals showed up and had a collective $12,000 in charges wiped out.
“For folks experiencing homelessness or at risk, if you don’t have an ID, you can’t get anything, medications filled, a job, anything,” Everly said.
The coalition recetnly held a veterans stand-down day, a pop-up event where those who just got released from jail or who are homeless could get an ID.
From there, they will go to a second-chance job fair. Everly said they hoped they could get the 10 employers to hire people on the spot.
“I don’t want anyone coming away not feeling empowered to better their situation,” Everly said.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com