The Department of Children and Families' most recent Florida Annual Report on Homeless Conditions in Florida estimates that approximately 83,391 persons are homeless in Florida on any given night. According to the same report, there are 228 shelters throughout the state with a total of 8,561 available beds to house homeless persons. Transitional housing facilities provide space to serve another 11,122 persons nightly. Thus, we only have capacity to serve 29% of homeless Floridians, even on a temporary basis. Permanent housing opportunities are even more scarce.

While these numbers indicate an urgent need for additional resources to address the needs of homeless people, many citizens, including community and state leaders, continue to be unaware of the severity of our homelessness problem. Thus, initiatives that could effectively address homelessness do not receive the attention and the funding they deserve.

The Mid-Florida Homeless Coalition  strives to make homelessness a priority. We accomplish this through:

• Providing education on homelessness issues;
• Advocating for initiatives that help homeless people and against laws and ordinances that may harm them;
• Networking with advocates throughout Florida on federal, state and local issues;
• Promoting unification, involvement and leadership of other coalitions, service providers, homeless people, religious leaders, units of government and others in the development and implementation of a statewide agenda.

We invite you to learn more about the causes of homelessness, what some communities are doing to help homeless people become self-sufficient and what you can do at the grassroots level to help end homelessness.