MELBOURNE, Fla. – News 6 viewers said the number of homeless people on the streets of Melbourne has risen over the last few years, and they are concerned about what is being done about it.
As News 6 Hits The Road, our team investigated what solutions are being worked on.
Snapshot of past problems
In 2022, Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey took to Facebook urging people not to give money to panhandlers.
“Melbourne residents called, and they want their city back,” he told News 6.
Since then, the city has been wrestling with what to do.
In March 2024, Alfrey posted to Facebook again after city crews collected more than 17 tons of garbage from a homeless camp on Sarno Road.
One month later, the city removed benches from downtown Melbourne to prevent people from sleeping on them.
The Brevard Homeless Coalition conducted its annual count of homeless residents earlier this year.
According to their numbers, volunteers counted 1,116 people – the highest count since 2015. They said chronic homelessness rose 72% over last year.
Local leaders estimated there are approximately 300 people who sleep on the streets of Melbourne on any given night.
Daily Bread
Jeff Njus is the executive director of Daily Bread – a homeless outreach organization in Melbourne.
“We have a homeless problem, and the question is, what are we doing about it?” he said.
The center provides meals and assistance to people who may have no shelter.
Njus has led the organization for the last six years, and he said he has seen the population of homeless grow.
“It’s a fun place to work,” he said. “We have the privilege of working with what I like to call the most interesting people in town. You know, these are people who are facing dire situations with a lot of resilience, and we get to walk along with them to try to help move forward and overcome and eventually get to that housing solution.”
City of Melbourne
Community Development Director Cindy Dittmer told News 6 the city has been working hard to find solutions.
“It’s challenging,” she said. “There’s a lot of different agencies out there trying to do different things.”
She said the city has leaned into the concept of affordable housing.
“We tried to offer things such as impact fee deferrals and density bonuses to allow more units to be developed,” she said.
Melbourne city leaders have seen some success, which includes awarding grant money to several affordable housing projects.
Providence Place
One way the City of Melbourne and the Daily Bread are trying to combat the rising problem of homelessness will eventually sit on Sarno Road.
Both organizations are working together to create Providence Place.
The affordable housing complex will sit on 3 acres of land with 120 affordable housing units.
The total cost will range between $15 million and $20 million.
“It’s not just housing,” Njus said. “It’s housing and support. It’s addiction recovery, it’s mental health services and all of those things.”
He and Dittmer admit – this is not an easy problem to fix. They said it’s going to take collaboration.
“We’re not a huge city, we’re a mid-sized city that’s experienced a lot of growth in the last few years,” he said. “Now, we’re saying how can we make sure that growth is helping our whole community, including people on the street – the most vulnerable? How can we be helping them? We’re saying, yes.”
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