I am a fiscal conservative, and I’d love to reduce my monthly housing bill by lowering property taxes. After all, I work for a nonprofit, and my family counts every penny so I can serve our community and help others.
That’s been my life’s work. For many years, I was a Presbyterian minister, but I found my current calling as CEO of Rescue Outreach Mission, Seminole County’s only homeless shelter serving nearly anyone who wants to return to a permanent home.
In a perfect world, the generosity of others would be enough to support our mission. While government has a role in helping those experiencing homelessness, I wish our churches, businesses, and individual donors could provide nearly everything we need.
But the private dollars available simply aren’t enough to meet the needs at this time. That’s why I worry about what Amendment 3 could mean for the people who depend on us.
Over the years, local governments have understood what happens in a community when programs addressing homelessness aren’t funded. Images from communities across the country that don’t prioritize homelessness initiatives are vivid.
In Seminole County, commissioners budgeted $250,000 this year to support shelter nights at Rescue Outreach Mission. Spread across the county’s approximately 109,000 homesteaded properties, that contribution amounts to less than $2.25 per home per year.
That funding provides one night at our shelter for about 17 people each and every night of the year.
If we lose that support, we will do everything we can to keep people from sleeping in their cars, in tents, or on sidewalks. But we will have to change how we operate, and those changes will affect far more than those 17 people.
But as the person responsible for keeping those doors open, I have to tell you philanthropy alone isn’t enough. Before voting on Amendment 3, please consider what losing our local government funding support would mean for the seniors and families who have come to us because they have nowhere else to go.
Chris Ham is CEO of Rescue Outreach Mission in Sanford.
Read the full Guest Column in the Orlando Sentinel