Homeless shelters in Daytona Beach have been overcrowded for months.

  • Commissioners discuss homeless shelters overcrowding
  • 14 possible locations proposed as temporary shelter sites
  • No shelter solutions decided at meeting Thursday night

With no where else for these people to go, the Daytona Beach City Commissioners met to discuss some solutions.

But no decision was made and nearly 100 people living in the Salvation Army shelter could be out on the street by Monday. Paul Davis, 78, used to be a contractor.

"I had 35 men working for me," Davis said.

But hard financial times changed everything.

“I was successful," he said.

For the past three months he has been homeless.

“Homeless people are humans,” he said through tears.

Despite overcrowding, the Salvation Army shelter offered him a bed.

“They saved my life," he said.

But in four days, Davis and 85 others at this shelter could be back on the street.

“Where we gonna live?" Davis asked. "We’re gonna have to spend all the money that we saved.”

The Bridge Bed Program between the city and shelter continues to delay any action.

The city directed staff to research temporary shelter locations within the community, by contacting owners of vacant properties, inspecting the structures and calculating costs for repairs and rent.

But at the special meeting, commissioners never brought up the report filled with 14 alternative options.

“I didn’t see one that I thought was an option,” Mayor Derrick Henry said.

Besides the homeless problem, commissioners said they have a problem with spending money on a new shelter.

So without a long-term or short-term solution in place, Mayor Henry said the city may opt to purchase hotel rooms for the 86 people that are in jeopardy of losing their beds by Monday - an expense the city has not yet calculated.

“With God’s blessing I will get back on my feet," Davis said.

Daytona Beach Commissioners will meet next Wednesday to once again discuss homeless shelter solutions.