'There is no help, period': Homeless must meet specific criteria for emergency, transitional housing

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A little over two years ago, in November 2019, Barbara Perry saw the leak in her trailer’s roof grow to the "size of a Volkswagen."

When her landlord refused to fix it, Perry, facing a breast cancer diagnosis and harsh treatment regime, knew she couldn't afford to wait. She began reaching out for help. She called 211 Brevard, a nonprofit that facilitates assistance for those in need, the Brevard Women's Center, Love in the Name of Christ and Salvation Army.

"I was told — keep in mind, (this was) before the pandemic — that the homeless population is so high in Brevard County, there is no help, period," the 60-year-old Perry recently recalled.

In July of 2021, her rented trailer was condemned. After two years of breast cancer treatment, which included a partial mastectomy and chemotherapy that made her too sick to work, Perry became homeless.

Since then, she has lived on the street, at Still Waters Ministries — a transitional housing facility — and now in a shed on private property owned by her boyfriend’s family in West Melbourne.

Perry, like many, has found that help isn't easy to find.

Overwhelming needs of both homeless people and those fighting to remain off the streets in Brevard, as well as strict criteria for who is eligible for assistance, make it difficult to find shelter. Many are left with no resources and few places to turn.

According to Buddy Morrow, president and executive director of Christ is the Answer or CITA, a nonprofit that runs one of Brevard's only men's shelters, there could be between 815 to 1,320 homeless individuals in Brevard County, based on a count performed last year. Morrow believes that this figure has grown since then.

Yet despite the growing number, there are only 584 beds in emergency, safe haven and transitional housing as of 2020 in Brevard County, according to figures from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. And when it comes to adult-only beds, that figure dwindles down to 268 beds.

For many individuals seeking shelter, rules can be the biggest barrier next to availability to accessing shelter.

“These barriers can operate to keep other unsheltered people on the street,” according to a study conducted by the Seattle University of Law.

Advocates push for what's known as a low barrier shelter. Those shelters are open 24/7, which prevents individuals from having to line up every night or leave in the morning. Additionally, these shelters don’t drug test individuals and are not just for “housing-readiness.”

In Brevard, the shelters tend to focus on particular groups of people. For example, Brevard’s Women’s Center provides transitional housing for women. According to their website, this housing is only available if a woman meets certain criteria: she must have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or a crime; be homeless or in danger of becoming homeless; have at least 50% custody of her children if applicable; meet HUD’s very low or low income guidelines; work a minimum of 30 hours a week or 20 if she is in school; have documented proof of income; and be free of substance abuse for one year.

Perry told FLORIDA TODAY she was not currently facing domestic violence when she became homeless, making her ineligible for housing at the Women's Center. She also didn't meet the criteria for help from the Sue M. Pridmore Center when she applied in late 2019, she said.

Sue M. Pridmore Center, a transitional housing facility operated by Salvation Army in Melbourne, helps woman age 18 or older and requires they meet criteria such as: being employable in the United States; either actively seeking employment, being employed full-time or employed full-time and enrolled in an educational program; not “fleeing” from domestic violence; not requiring rehabilitation from addiction; not waiting for income sources outside of employment such as SSD, SSI, SSE or workers compensation; and homeless “within the scope of the Center’s focus.” Women without children may stay at the center, as well as women with girls under the age of 18, or women with boys under the age of 12.

Other shelters also target their help to certain people such as veterans, which Perry is not, or mothers (Perry has no children) or people 62-years and older at the Genesis house, a Melbourne shelter. Perry is 60.

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“We currently receive approximately five calls a week from a mother or lady that needs help and are homeless or in a car,” Morrow said. CITA's shelter has its own set of criteria, which includes that men staying at the shelter not be drinking or high on drugs and not possess any substances.

These rules, Morrow said, are the biggest challenge for those deciding if they would like to become part of CITA’S 6-month housing program.

“There are rules to our program as with all programs. For many of those men that are homeless, rules are the biggest setback of them finding any type of shelter/housing as they do not care to have any rules in their life,” Morrow said.

Getting jobs and saving money is a big factor in seeking housing, and employment is a criteria many shelters in Brevard have for those looking for housing. This is to help prepare them to transition back out into the community, said Joyce Catley, program coordinator at Salvation Army.

“If they come in and get employed and save a bunch of money while they’re with us …. and they get out and they try to get an apartment for $1,200 or $1,500 when they can’t support that, probably in three months, they would try to come back,” Catley said. “We want to try to make sure that they have more of a realistic, educated approach on budgeting on what they can afford when they get out so that they don’t turn around and come right back.”

But for those who live on the street or in tents, sheds or similar structures, finding a job can be more difficult. Not having access to electricity and a shower cost Perry a job opportunity recently at a Brevard hotel.

"If I could get a room — someone to pay for a room (for less than two weeks), then I could start this job and I could kill two birds with one stone. I could have a room, I could have a job and by the first of the year, my life — by the first of the year, my life would be completely turned around," she said. "(But) I had to pass on the job because I can't go there smelling like the woods. I can't. I have to give 100%."

When Perry has received help, she said it feels like "one hand doesn't know what the other is doing," saying she is working with the Department of Children and Family Services, 211 Brevard and the Housing Coalition to try to get assistance.

"(There are) no results yet to solve my homeless problem, but I do believe efforts are being made," she said.

Ultimately, some experts say the goal needs to shift away from temporary shelters toward more permanent housing from the start.

According to Anne Raye, manager of the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at the University of Florida's Shimberg Center for Housing, the policy behind housing someone used to be centered on being “housing ready,” meaning that individuals would have to get placed in a shelter first. Then, those individuals would get a job while in shelter, and then be moved into permanent housing.

“We're generally finding that it’s those things — not having permanent housing itself — is destabilizing. So get people into housing first, and then work on all those other issues,” said Raye.

"It's so important to have the shelter beds but it’s a much more sound solution to provide permanent housing...that's a more stabilizing solution," said Raye. "Housing is really the answer.”

Stability is something lacking in Perry’s life. However, she says she has maintained a sense of humor and hopes to use her situation to help others. She is working on her master’s degree in human service online at Purdue University Global. She plans to work with others facing homelessness in the future and hopes to tell her own story, possibly through writing a book one day.

"I have no doubt that my circumstances are going to change,” Perry said. “But my journey has been long.”

Amira Sweilem is the data reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Sweilem at 386-406-5648 or asweilem@floridatoday.com.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Transitional housing limited, keeping some in Brevard unhoused