Apopka seeks unified approach to homeless services 

Local homeless service providers called for greater coordination Thursday as Apopka began exploring whether organizations could work under a unified system to better connect people with shelter, housing and other assistance. 

The Apopka Homeless Services Town Hall brought together nonprofits, churches, advocates and people experiencing homelessness at The Well, where Mayor Nick Nesta proposed an “umbrella organization” that could serve as a one-stop connection to food, clothing, housing, health care, hygiene and employment resources. Nesta emphasized that he envisioned service providers — not the city — eventually running the effort. 

“What I want to see is create a community, number one, but have all those that are helping those in need come together and create one unified approach that helps those in need,” Nesta said after the meeting. 

Eric Camarillo, founder and executive director of SALT Outreach, said his organization has served 283 different people experiencing homelessness in Apopka so far this year, providing about 6,000 services, including 670 showers. About one in five people coming to the site are new to homelessness, he said. 

Camarillo said rising rents and evictions are among the circumstances pushing people into homelessness, including seniors living on fixed incomes. The greatest unmet needs, he said, are affordable housing, shelter and a place where people can get out of “fight or flight” long enough to connect with services. 

Apopka already has organizations addressing pieces of those needs, Camarillo said, but no central location tying their work together. 

“It’s just a lot of great people doing really great things, and we just got to figure out how to be great together,” he said. 

Among those addressing shelter is Matthew’s Hope founder Scott Billue, who said the nonprofit expects to soon receive its first sleeper bus for Orange County, with a focus on Apopka. Matthew’s Hope already transports people from Apopka to its Winter Garden campus twice weekly for services and sends mobile outreach teams into the area, Billue said. The sleeper-bus initiative has been in development since last year, when Apopka approved working with Matthew’s Hope on the program. 

Billue cautioned that meeting immediate needs alone is not enough. 

“Me just supplying the stuff over and over again has never gotten anybody out of homelessness,” he said. “Our goal is to move you out of homelessness if that’s a possibility.” 

Pastor David Schorejs of First Baptist Church said he had been involved for about five years in efforts to establish a homeless resource center in Apopka, work that led to the formation of the Next Step Foundation. He said the foundation remains willing to support whatever organization is best positioned to lead a coordinated resource-center effort. 

“Next Step Foundation is willing to set all of our goals aside to partner with whoever can make this happen,” Schorejs said. “We need a place, and once that place is there, whether it’s Matthew’s Hope as the lead or SALT as a lead or whoever it is, we’re willing to just jump in and 100% support that.” 

One 70-year-old attendee who said he has been homeless for about four weeks told the group that he has seen people sleeping in wooded areas and others afraid of being seen on sidewalks or streets because they fear being arrested. 

“This is serious business here, and they need serious answers,” he said. 

The city is asking organizations to complete a questionnaire identifying the services they provide, resources they believe are missing and whether they support an umbrella or one-stop-shop model. Nesta said the responses will be compiled, made publicly available and used to identify gaps before another meeting, which he hopes to hold in about a month. 

He said his goal is eventually to hand the effort over to the organizations doing the work. 

“I don’t need my name on anything,” Nesta told attendees. “That is not the goal of this.”