ORLANDO, Fla. — Covenant House, a 28-bed crisis facility for homeless youth ages 18-22, will close in July after serving the Orlando area for nearly two decades. An official for the shelter cited “budgetary challenges” when announcing the closure.  

With the shelter set to close soon, the mother of a young man who stayed at the shelter for several years is worried about other homeless youth.

Joanne Ranucci is now reunited with her son after she became separated from him when he was only 12. She says Covenant House helped steer him in a positive direction during some very vulnerable years.

“It was a light in his life at that time and now that light is going to be taken away for all these youths,” said Ranucci. “And where are they going to find it, where are they going to go–I don’t know.”

Ranucci’s nonprofit organization Angel Blessings Homeless Ministry, which helps people addicted to drugs turn their lives around, is now teaming up with community partners with plans to build a new homeless shelter. She hopes when that opens, it will help fill some of the void that the closure of Covenant House will leave. Ranucci plans to first open a women’s shelter, but then expand that to all ages, including homeless youth. 

Like Ranucci, Jessica Whetstone also overcame drug addiction to turn her life around. Whetstone is now also helping others through Angel Blessings Homeless Ministry. Whetstone is working on getting donations and other community support to make the new shelter a reality.

“Our goal is to work together to help the broken, the lost, the addicted, and to help them find their identity and purpose in life and basically, to give them a second chance at life,” said Whetstone.