DeLand city leaders accomplished what Daytona Beach city leaders have been trying to do for a year now -- convince the Volusia County Council to provide the necessary funding to build a homeless shelter.

  • Volusia County approved funding for 20-bed DeLand homeless shelter
  • DeLand will handle operating costs
  • County says deal should serve as example to Daytona Beach

The DeLand homeless shelter will help people like Richard Trieber.

“I’m still homeless, I still don’t have a place of my own,” said the 54-year-old, who right now lives and works at the Neighborhood Center in DeLand, a transitional homeless shelter with only 10 beds for the time being. Trieber said he knows the struggles of looking for shelter when living on the streets.

“A lot of people want to get into places and there’s no beds, and they’re still waiting and waiting,” said Trieber as he filled bags with food at the Neighborhood Center food pantry.

The county council voted unanimously to provide more than a million dollars to build a homeless shelter with 20 beds.

This comes on the heels of the Neighborhood Center announcing they will expand from 10 to 30 beds, effectively bringing the number of beds in the DeLand area to around 50.

“There is a solution to homelessness, and that’s housing individuals that have fallen into the state of homelessness,” said Neighborhood Center executive director Susan Clark.

Councilwoman Billie Wheeler, who represents the Daytona Beach area, said the construction of a homeless shelter on the west side of the county should serve as an example for the people who want to build a homeless shelter on the east side, where there are more homeless men and women.

County documents show there are around 54 homeless men and women in DeLand. But those same documents show there are more than 500 homeless in the Daytona Beach area.

This same time last year, more than 80 men and women camped outside the Volusia Administration Building in Daytona Beach, protesting the lack of beds for the homeless.

Although a shelter is in the works, Daytona Beach and county leaders have not formalized the type of shelter funding plans that were formalized Thursday with DeLand

“One of the big issues I know the county had was the operating costs. That will be an issue all the way through,” said Wheeler.

During past negotiations, Daytona Beach refused to cover operating costs for a shelter. DeLand will pick up the operating costs for the new shelter.

“You can get a lot of the homeless off the streets and give them a place to stay where they’re not out there beg, borrowing and stealing and breaking into places to survive,” said Trieber.