Rekindling hope: New Daytona veterans shelter to provide a path to a happier, stable life

DAYTONA BEACH — Fueled by a $1 million county government grant, and another $1 million Veterans Administration grant, a local nonprofit has transformed a 70-year-old complex of dilapidated church buildings into transitional housing for veterans.

A long one-story building on the Derbyshire Road property that had been used as a community center has been turned into efficiency-style apartments that will each have a walk-in closet, private bathroom, bed, recliner, dresser, desk with a chair and a television.

Other buildings on the 2.35-acre site will provide places for the veterans to get free meals, play foosball and do laundry. There will also be a community garden and a shady area with picnic tables beneath large, old-growth trees.

What will probably mean the most to the 20 homeless veterans slated to move into the apartments by Nov. 10 will be the Halifax Urban Ministries staff who help them get their lives back on track and chase after new dreams.

"If all we do is provide for needs, you don't spark that hope," said Buck James, executive director of Halifax Urban Ministries.

Halifax Urban Ministries has been working on creating the 20-apartment veterans shelter for about two years. The agency first had to work out an agreement for the property to be donated and deeded to Halifax Urban Ministries from the Atlantic Central Florida District of the United Methodist Church.

The nonprofit also had to secure a new zoning designation on the land, which is in a low-income neighborhood a few blocks south of LPGA Boulevard and west of Nova Road. The plan for the 8,500-square-foot complex, which will be available to both men and women, also had to pass muster with the Veterans Administration.

Funding also had to be locked in to overhaul the simple brick buildings in the Derbyshire neighborhood north of Mason Avenue.

With the project rapidly approaching the finish line now, a celebration and grand opening has been planned for 2 p.m. on Nov. 10, the day before Veterans Day. U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, a former Green Beret and combat-decorated veteran, is expected to come to the facility at 962 Derbyshire Road that day, as are hundreds of other people including veterans and an array of local and VA officials.

A new and better refuge for veterans

Halifax Urban Ministries has been in Volusia County for decades, and it oversees the Hope Place family shelter, Feed a Family program, Bridge of Hope mobile pantry and Pathways to Housing program.

The not-for-profit agency used to run a family shelter and free meal program in a cluster of buildings on North Street just west of Ridgewood Avenue. The meal program, which was available to anyone in need for about 20 years, recently stopped operating in the North Street complex and evolved into a mobile food service.

The new food service runs out of a truck with a refrigerated section and an oven that distributes meals 365 days a year. It's what the new veterans shelter will use to feed its residents.

The Starr Family Shelter, which operated for about 15 years, closed down when Halifax Urban Ministries opened its new family shelter, Hope Place, in a renovated elementary school north of LPGA Boulevard five years ago.

Halifax Urban Ministries converted its North Street family shelter into veterans' transitional housing in late 2018, providing individual rooms to 20 people. It's also called the Barracks of Hope, and it has offered everything from strong guidance to a place to sleep, shower and do laundry.

The North Street area has struggled with crime, drugs and prostitution problems for decades, and Halifax Urban Ministries is happy to be moving the Barracks of Hope to a quieter, more residential area.

"The veterans that we serve at the Barracks have hit a rough spot in their lives," said Anne Evans, chairperson of the Halifax Urban Ministries Board. "It is a privilege to give back to them a new Barracks of Hope in an environment that is private, safe and healthy. Our community, which includes the veterans at the Barracks, will be positively impacted by its presence."

'It takes all of us working together'

There has been an extensive overhaul of the Methodist church property, which most recently had been used as a community assistance agency with a thrift store and food pantry. The four buildings on the site were partially gutted and then put back together with new floor plans, new fixtures and flooring, and fresh coats of paint.

Outside, sidewalks were ripped out and replaced with newly poured concrete. All of the grass and asphalt was also removed, and just a few days ago the entire property was like a giant sandbox. New sod and a fresh coat of asphalt were about to be laid.

Early last week new furniture hadn't been moved in yet, and construction workers were scurrying to add finishing touches.

The building that for decades people knew as Christ United Methodist Church, now destined to be a multipurpose structure, was still in a little disarray inside last week. The narthex will soon become a place where veterans can eat, watch TV, relax on couches, play pool, and socialize with fellow tenants.

The sanctuary still has wooden pews, dusty Bibles and stained glass windows, and can be used for classes.

Another building will become a laundry facility and the office, complete with a screen to monitor security cameras. It will also be the place where medications are distributed each day.

Two of the residents' rooms are compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, so people who use wheelchairs could be housed there. But all residents need to be able to take care of themselves.

Tenants can stay up to a few years, and those with income will pay a small amount of rent. The goal is to help them buy a house. If that's not financially possible, then an affordable rental unit will be secured.

Construction costs ran over projections, and Halifax Urban Ministries needs to raise $200,000.

Donors can give $25,000 and become a room sponsor. A plaque with their name, their company's name, or their local government's name would hang over the door of a resident's room.

Those interested in contributing can send an email to Rhonda@Halifaxurbanministries.org or call 386-317-5880.

Shelter is safety net for struggling vets

The Salvation Army will take over the space Barracks of Hope was using in the North Street complex and make it transitional housing for anyone in need, James said.

The facility, owned by the Volusia-Flagler Coalition for the Homeless, is nothing fancy, and it's aging. Resident rooms are tiny, and they provide little more than a private place to sleep. Bathroom and shower facilities are shared.

But hundreds of lives have been turned around there.

Phil Belcher showed up at the Barracks of Hope in early May of 2022 after trudging through the worst period of his life. He had been widowed nine years earlier, and the 70-year-old's impulse decision to move from California to Florida led to disaster.

He and his nephew had planned to buy a motorhome, but he said when they arrived they saw that "it was a piece of junk." Belcher wound up sleeping in the parking lot of a Holly Hill Publix in the camper he was hauling with his truck.

"I had never been without a home before," the grandfather of eight said.

Belcher served in the Air Force in the late years of the Vietnam War, so he found a local VA clinic and asked for help. He wound up staying at the Barracks of Hope until the end of January this year, a total of nine months.

"I'm grateful for it," he said. "I'd recommend it to anyone."

Employees at the veterans shelter helped him find the apartment he now lives in at Clyde Morris Landings. He's able to cover the $520 rent with Section 8 housing assistance, his VA disability benefits and Social Security checks.

The retiree said he looked at staying at the shelter like living in the barracks during his military service. Conditions were basic and rules had to be followed, but he had everything he needed.

"If I had to do it over again I would," Belcher said. "I wasn't making good decisions. It got me off the streets. They changed my life for the better."

'They saved my life'

Mark Wolfson stayed at the Barracks of Hope around the same time Belcher did, from June through December last year.

The Wisconsin native served 12 years in the Army, and then in 2005 went on to work in a variety of careers including architectural engineering.

The 57-year-old has battled severe anxiety and depression, and he had been homeless for three months when he arrived at the Barracks of Hope. He wasn't on the streets, but he knew he couldn't sleep on friends' couches forever.

"I walked in like a drowned sewer rat terrified of life itself," Wolfson said. "They helped me remember I was a human being and who I was. I got my heart back and my life back."

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He arrived with only the clothes on his back, and weighing about 40 pounds less than he does now because he was too stressed out to eat.

He said employees at the Barracks of Hope helped him go from just surviving to living again. And they helped him go from "borrowing money to buy a Coke" to tapping government assistance that covers his expenses.

He now has his own apartment, a truck and a motorcycle.

"To say they saved my life is an understatement," Wolfson said. "If not for the Barracks of Hope, I'd be in a coffin now. They gave me a brand new beginning. I don't have enough good to say about them."

You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: New veterans transitional housing opening in Daytona Beach November 10