The city of Daytona Beach is taking donations between $10 and $10,000 from the public to help pay for emergency beds and a new homeless shelter.
Commissioner Pam Woods says the need for a solution escalated when the county’s homeless started sleeping in front of the main building more than one month ago.
“It forced us to sit down as a collective community, bring together the agencies that serve the homeless and the business community, too, and say, ‘What do we need to do?’”
Volusia County has pledged $4 million toward a shelter in Daytona Beach that would stay open twenty-four hours.
“You already have the Stewart-Marchman facility there which provides services those with mental health and substance abuse issues," Woods says. "The jail is already out there, so already, facilities that provide county-wide services are located in the same location.”
Nine cities nearby have also pledged to help pay for the facility.
Meanwhile, officials in Daytona Beach have opened eighteen emergency beds for the homeless.