Many residents, students still homeless months after Nicole

Demie Johnson,Matt Reeser
·2 min read

Months after hurricanes Ian and Nicole, hundreds of Daytona Beach families are still displaced.

In Midtown, streets are lined with empty homes as people live out of hotels or with family members.

Ricardo Littles, who grew up in the area, came back to the area to help his mother and said he was shocked at how things had changed.

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“People may look in this area and may not think it means a whole lot, but for the people that live here like my mom and other people, its been a community that they’ve lived in for 40, 50 plus years,” Littles said.

Many people living in midtown don’t have the money to rebuild and while many are working to rebuild their lives and homes, the area could use more help.

This week neighbors met with the city this week to get answers.

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City leaders say they are working with state and federal officials to fix flooding issues and plan to send a letter from neighbors to the White House asking for help.

Daytona Beach NAACP president Cynthia Slater said more than 100 students from the neighborhood are now considered homeless.

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“We want to make sure that those kids are, first of all, in a place that’s safe and secure and that they have transportation to school,” Slater said.

Slater said these students aren’t necessarily living on the streets, but they can still be considered homeless if they’re in a temporary or shared space with other families.

“I think some of them are living in Ormond, and if they live in Ormond and their actual residence is in Daytona, then how are they getting to school and back,” she said.

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