ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – It’s a dream that Pastor Marcos Diaz is trying to make a reality.
“There is gonna be an administration building right here, but this side, right here is gonna be emergency housing because this is the area that we have no neighbors,” said Pastor Marcos.
This vision involves turning a 6.23-acre property into a crisis center for the homeless, with around 240 units for transitional and emergency housing, along with other facilities, including a drug treatment center.
“So here will be the transitional housing is set up, five buildings, three to four floors,” said Diaz.
These plans come one year after the Orange County Fire Marshal shut down their facilities for sheltering homeless people in storage container housing, which had accommodated 120 people at one point.
“It happened during COVID, during a crisis. We had to come with a solution because we had so many people here that we had to sustain,” said Diaz.
Hope City Refuge presented their plans to the county commission this week.
Several people in the community support and oppose the idea.
Orange County staff pointed out that Hope City Refuge had millions of dollars in unpaid fines, including $65,000 in non-negotiable fines.
“Today, there are $2.5 million in administrative fines. Those are the fines when you go before the enforce for the magistrate, and you have 30 days to come into compliance. We have not received any communications with them regarding reducing those fines,” said Jason Reynolds with Orange County Code Enforcement Neighborhood Services.
One of the main reasons for these violations was leaving the containers on their property and allowing trucks to park there.
“They received code violations, letting them know they could not park there. Per Mr. Diaz, they were collecting money from people who are parking there,” said Reynolds.
“They always gave their donation, and that’s what sustains those kids because we never got government assistance. This has always been out of our heart and compassion, and community coming together, and that’s what the community did during COVID,” said Diaz.
County commissioners said it wasn’t clear how the organization would pay for the project or pay the outstanding fines, which is why they decided to give the organization more time.
“Whatever it takes to show that we’re community players and we’re here to help the community, and in the day we’re here to help,” said Diaz.
Diaz said they were unaware and didn’t understand all of the rules, but they plan to come into compliance and pay off their fines by their next hearing in June.
He said that if all goes well, they can begin the first phase of their project, which would cost around $10 million.
