Homeless shelter for women and children opening soon in Fort Myers. What to know

Thanksgiving will have special meaning this year to disadvantaged women and children in Fort Myers.

The Collier County-based St. Matthew’s House homeless and addiction recovery organization is aiming to open a new shelter for homeless women and children by Thanksgiving, Nov. 28.

The 8,000-square-foot shelter at 3637 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Fort Myers has 11 private dorms for women with children and 28 beds for single women. It will have laundry, a central kitchen, and playroom.

The women and children’s shelter is a first in Lee for St. Matthew’s to address growing need.

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The shelter will annually serve 300 single women, senior women, and women with children.

The Lee County Homeless Coalition reports 862 people were homeless in late January 2023, based on a “point in time” count by volunteers. Of the total, 118 were children under 18. The results showed 598 of the total homeless were unsheltered. Data from 2024 was not on the organization’s website.

The homeless count in Collier found 660 people countywide this year have no place to live, which is down from 703 the year before.

Statewide in Florida there were 7,831 families who were homeless in 2023, according to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s report on homelessness.

More: Homelessness jumps by 40% in Lee County: Hurricane Ian, rising rents to blame

Factor in data from a year earlier, 34 states saw an increase in the number of families with children who were homeless, in Florida it was 1,391 families with children compared to 2022 of 6,440 homeless families with children, according to the national data.

The need is big and increasing

The Fort Myers shelter will help address needed in the community, said Steve Brooder, chief executive officer of St. Matthew’s.

“The homeless population in Southwest Florida has grown as the lack of affordable housing has reached a crisis stage,” Brooder said. “All of these factors have come together to create a perfect storm of issues for those already on the borderline of economic instability.”

Because of the affordable housing crisis and circumstances with people’s lives, social service agencies have been seeing an increase in first time homelessness and that includes among families and older women, he said.

“St. Matthew’s House provides the full range of services and resources vital to ensuring that no one experiencing homelessness, hunger or addiction is alone or without a pathway for their journey from crisis to contributor,” Brooder said.

Michael Overway, executive director of the Hunger and Homeless Coalition in Collier, said it’s been a privilege to work with St. Matthew’s to expand in Lee. Overway also oversees the Lee County Homeless Coalition.

“The need for these beds has become exponentially amplified over the last year and a half due to the high rent rates and the hurricane impact in our community,” Overway said.  “St. Matthew’s House offers single women and mothers with children new hope and a future filled with new opportunities.”

St. Matthew’s runs the only homeless shelters in Collier, which is the Campbell Lodge in East Naples and Immokalee Friendship in Immokalee which can shelter more than 250 men, women and children every night.

Is there a wait list now?

Fort Myers shelter director Rachael McKinnon said a wait list opened the last week of October and applicants are waiting to hear when the shelter will get its certificate of occupancy and an official move in date before notifying them.

“At last count we already have seven families and seven single women waiting on beds,” McKinnon said.

The stays in shelter can be 90 days or longer.

“We typically have a stay length of 90 days,” she said. “However, we also want to ensure that the women exiting our shelter are set up for a successful transition into housing.  With the lack of affordable housing available right now we typically see families stay with us for up to a year and single women up to about six months.”

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After the women have been in the shelter for a few weeks, they will be required to pay a weekly fee.

“This is a very minimal fee with the goal to be more about developing the habit of budgeting in rent costs and how to manage that and that they have some buy-in to their process.  It also helps to foster a sense of accomplishment,” she said.

For more information about St. Matthew’s House or to make a donation, visit stmatthewshouse.org.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Collier-based St. Matthew's House addressing homelessness in Fort Myers