'Family' Is Fastest-Growing Homeless Category In Florida

POSTED: 6:05 pm EST January 24, 2008

UPDATED: 6:13 pm EST January 25, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Families with children are the fastest-growing population of homeless people in our region, according to a Local 6 News investigation.
There are almost 2,000 homeless families with children living in Central Florida and more than 1,000 of them have no shelter.
Central Florida children, Michael and Sam, have lived on the streets with their parents and baby sister Iris.
"It was very hard seeing my kids sleeping on a bench there," father Rey Rivera said. "We spent two nights out on the street until we moved into the Coalition. We lived check by check some days. We had no money for food. We lived off Ramen noodles. Sometimes we barely had anything. We may have had a slice of bread each night."
"I didn't want myself or my children to have to go through this, being out on the street and having no place to go and nothing to eat," mother Joanne Rivera said.
"How do families become homeless? Well, for the Riveras and many like them, it is about livable wages," Local 6's Steven Cooper said.
"I was the only one working at the time and my wife got pregnant with my daughter," Rey Rivera said. "She couldn't work anymore and I couldn't afford to pay the rent by myself with only a $7 an hour job."
The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Orlando requires an hourly wage of almost $16.
The average worker earns $8 an hour.
"Working a minimum wage job of $7 an hour or $8 an hour barely pays for bills or anything at all," Joanne Rivera said.
"If it wasn't for the Coalition, we would actually still be on the street," Rey Rivera said.
The Coalition for the Homeless is the largest provider of homeless services in Central Florida and the largest residential facility for homeless children.
The provider serves thousands of men, women and families with children every year with shelter, food, case management, education, and job skills training.
Programs like the Coalition for the Homeless rely heavily on public and private funding, according to the report.
Cooper reported that the same goes for a program just launched this month in Osceola County that could become a model for the state if not the country -- called the Homes Project.
The program is dedicated to getting homeless women and their children off the street.
The Homes Project is a brand new campus that will house 64 families in real apartment settings and offer them real assistance.
Cooper reported that it brings out the passion of County Commissioner Paul Owens.
"We found one family that was in a cattle trailer with kids," Owens said. "I just think that's just deplorable in this country in which we live in that we can send billions and billions of dollars overseas to dictators who just put it in their own coffers and we can't meet the needs of those who are homeless here in America."
Owens said the problem will get families back on their feet.
"We'll help re-educate them, give them life skills, give them job skills and get them back out to mainstream society where they can own a home of their own," Owens said.
It will cost about $10,000 to put a family through the new program in Osceola County and people are already stepping forward with donations.
Meanwhile, Owens is leading an unofficial outreach team to work with the families living in Osceola County motels.