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Experts say motel conversions not the answer to homelessness in Osceola County

In 2014, Michael Bailey, an army veteran, found himself homeless after getting into drugs and alcohol. He left a construction job in North Florida and moved to Central Florida where he didn’t know anyone. He ended up at a homeless shelter in St.Cloud where he met someone who referred him to the Coalition for the Homeless in Orlando.

After just a few months of entering the coalition’s program, he was able to get an apartment and later a job working at the coalition.

Bailey, now the guest services manager, has worked nine years at the homeless shelter that took him in. His favorite part of working there is getting to see others get out of homelessness like he did.

“That’s one of the biggest gifts, is that I get paid but to get to see somebody that’s coming through and get a set of keys and move on,” Bailey said. “Another part about it is just being at Wawa or 7-Eleven and somebody come up and they shake your hand and they say I want to thank you for what you all did for me.”
Bailey’s story is not unique.

In Osceola County, homelessness has rapidly increased as pathways to housing are harder to find. Converting motels into affordable housing, a signature program used by some nonprofits, developers and even the city of Kissimmee, is not working because rents return to market rate as demand for the units increase. And, those who work to keep people sheltered say they can’t keep up with the demand for housing.

The data bares this out.

Homelessness has increased by 67% in the last five years in Osceola, a rate faster than any other county in Central Florida, according to statistics from the region’s homeless database.

In 2023, the number of unsheltered homeless, or homeless and not staying at a shelter, is 182. Those who are homeless but sheltered numbered 176. Those numbers jumped from last year’s count of 156 sheltered and 143 unsheltered, up even more than 2021’s count of 134 sheltered and 39 unsheltered.

The increasing trend in homelessness can be seen throughout the region. Orange County still leads the pack with the number of homeless but Osceola County is rapidly catching up, despite having the smallest population in the Orange-Kissimmee-Sanford region.

The Coalition for the Homeless shelters 550 individuals — 20% of whom are children — across its campus from all over Central Florida, said Trinette Nation, the coalition’s director of development. The coalition also serves 350 individuals through its outreach program. Typical stays average 100 days per family or individual, Nation said.
“We always end up having people that we have to turn away … on a daily basis,” Nation said. “We’re in the middle of an affordable housing crisis … so a lot of those stays have extended.”

Jessica Guzman, development manager and spokesperson at the coalition, said people often have misconceptions about who is actually homeless.

“A lot of our guests are still employed; they just are not making enough money,” Guzman said. “It’s not always what you think. The individuals we serve, they’re able to maybe, you know, get their own meals or pay a portion of their bills but it’s not enough to sustain a stable lifestyle — especially if they have children.”

Amy Donley, an assistant professor in the Sociology department at the University of Central Florida who researches homelessness and the director of the Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCF, said the lack of affordable housing is one of the main reasons for an increase in homelessness.

Donley also said the number of homeless might be even higher because it’s difficult to get an accurate count of the unsheltered.

“We’re interested in that distinction [between unsheltered and shelterd] because it’s more challenging to assist those that are unsheltered,” Donley said. “It’s harder to know how many there are at any given time and more difficult to kind of bring them into services.”

Donley said what makes Osceola County unique when it comes to homelessness is the large number of people living at extended-stay motels.

“People stay in extended-stay motels, right, they will stay there for a fair amount of time but again those are pretty expensive and so they’ll run out of money and end up homeless as well,” Donley said. “You can get into an extended-stay motel without first, last credit, it’s affordable a little bit, but if your hours are cut or you lose your job or you just run out of money [then] the rents are more expensive than people realize.”

Many of those extended-stay motels are being turned into affordable housing within the county. Some of the conversions charge too much for those struggling with homelessness to afford and those already living at the motels are sometimes forced to find another motel.

Maingate Village, an affordable apartment complex built by T2 Capital Management off Iro Bronson Highway, charges between $1,000 and $1,300 for each of its 357 apartments that were renovated from a Red Lion motel. Those prices were hiked up from $800 in 2020 when the complex opened, T2 CEO Jeff Brown said.

“It’s just demand,” Brown said. “As we’ve run out of units and been able to bring a few more online with resident turnover, we’ve been able to raise the price but it is just a byproduct of demand.”

Donley said that’s not affordable for those living in homeless shelters but it points to a larger problem of not enough housing for those at all income levels, which causes congestion in the market. She said if the county and city don’t act fast, homelessness is only going to increase along with the bureaucracy of zoning for affordable housing.

“We need more housing that’s affordable for all groups in Central Florida. … We need to look at our entire housing structure,” Donley said. “So, we need more, what are colloquially known as starter homes, like those affordable homes that people can get into. When they move into homes, that frees up more of the rental stock.”

While motel conversions are a “step in the right direction,” Donley said Osceola County — more than the rest of the region — needs more efficiency-style homes that charge only $400-$500 a month.

“Based on the numbers I review, Osceola would need a higher percentage of that than the other counties,” Donley said.

In an effort to address the congested rental stock the county’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee in 2022 recommended more housing diversity to increase the “missing middle housing availability in the county.” The report was submitted to county commissioners but recommendations were not implemented, said Danicka Ransom, assistant director of the Housing and Community Services Department.

The county, city of Kissimmee and local nonprofits have invested millions in many motel conversion projects but many won’t open until 2025 or later.

At Tuesday’s Kissimmee City Commission meeting, the newest edition of motel conversion, Haven on Vine was discussed. The project is set to open in 2025 and directly aims to help the homeless in the city and add to affordable housing in the city and county.

Deputy city manager Desiree Matthews pointed out that traditional motel conversions are not helping.
“We’ve continued to see an increase in the number of families that are currently unsheltered … because many of our older hotels serve as respite for those families to continue to pay their own way as they were precariously housed,” said Matthews. “As those motel-hotel units transition to multifamily, many of them are converting to market rate, making it more difficult for families to even have that as an opportunity for housing.”