Inflation crisis: Central Florida homeless ministry sees largest drop in donations in over a decade
With soaring rent prices and affordable housing hard to find, local shelters and charities are working around the clock to help those who are forced to sleep on the streets.
The demand is so high that one homeless service is worried about keeping its doors open.
Matthew's Hope Ministries in Winter Garden, a faith-based homeless outreach service, has been serving about 400 people within the last week. The number is expected to climb.
"They shower, they can pick up clothes, they can drop off dirty clothes, we'll wash it for them, they can eat, they can see the nurse," staff member Daniel Dewitz said about people who are living homeless.
He showed WESH 2 some of the empty shelves in the pantry at the Orange County site to highlight the impact of the demand for help amid a housing crisis.
"So you can kind of see with our pantry, not all our shelves are filled with what we're needing," Dewitz said. "We see people that say, 'hey I'm living out of my car because I was in a place but now I can't afford the rent or deposit or I have a job but I don't make enough.'"
Enough is what the team is worried about not having to give.
"We are about $150,000 off budget which has made us have to use the operating budget to handle the basics like food, clothing and hygiene," founder and CEO Scott Billue said.
Billue says it's a level of need his team hasn't seen in more than 12 years.
"We don't take any government funding," Billue said. "I can't imagine standing at the door and telling anybody 'no not you.' But the reality of it is without the donations how do you open the doors? You still have to pay for the electricity, the leases."
He says the average donation is nearly half of what it was just six months ago. Much of the problems are due to inflation woes.
"Most of our donors are middle-class folks – some even a little below middle class and I think part of it is, they really get how close they are to this happening to them," Billue said.
Whatever you can give, no amount is considered too small.
"There's many people that we now serve that have been donors in the past – we know that for a fact," Billue said. "And consider that this can happen to anyone and most of us are closer than we think."
Matthew's Hope Ministries accepts donations through its website or at its Winter Garden site.