Salvation Army To Double Housing For Homeless At Lakeland Community

LAKELAND, FL — Between the lack of affordable housing and pandemic-related economic troubles, the number of homeless families in Central Florida has reached record levels.

It's a crisis that Salvation Army of Lakeland/Polk County Capt. Jeremy Mockabee struggles with every day.

Mockabee oversees the operation of the Salvation Army's only family shelter in Central Florida.

"I would say over the last two months, we have probably been turning away from eight to 11 families every day," said Mockabee.

That's why the Salvation Army is investing $19.5 million to double the capacity of its 49-acre family-friendly neighborhood to provide struggling families with semi-permanent transitional housing while they rebuild their lives, the George W. Jenkins Community of Hope village.

On Thursday, the Salvation Army broke ground to add 20 additional rooms to its existing emergency shelter, 12 new apartments for transitional living, 13 houses for supportive housing, and a community and worship center.

Currently, the George W. Jenkins Community of Hope in Lakeland operates 21 fully-furnished tri-plex apartments. Potential residents undergo an interview process to be selected for the Family Living Program. Once selected, residents can enroll in the program for up to a year.

In addition to providing emergency shelter and semi-permanent housing, the Salvation Army provides a Pathway of Home program, which provides free services such as life skills classes, financial planning, referrals to other community agencies, transportation and child-care support, as well as case management support focused on sustainable housing.

As part of the Pathway of Home initiative, semi-permanent, transitional housing provides families with the opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency and financial independence, setting them on the path to home ownership.

He said the program has a life-changing impact on families with children because there's a correlation between stable housing and increased graduation rates in Polk County, especially in the emergency shelter, which opened seven years ago.

“If you’re an average-income family and everything is fine with housing, you have a 96 percent chance of progressing to the next grade," he said.

But Mockabee said that statistic drops to 88 percent for homeless children.

Families whose shelter services are facilitated through the Pathway of Home initiative, however, have a 99.6 percent progression rate, he said.

“We are not just babysitters,” he said. Students staying in shelters are provided with a curriculum, and Polk County school teachers tutor them after school and monitor their progress.

Maintaining its current success rate of more than 80 percent, the expansion of the George W. Jenkins Community of Hope will help five times more families achieve self-sufficiency; breaking the cycle for future generations, Mockabee said. This equates to 25 families successfully graduating from the Family Living Program each year, never returning to homelessness.