The New Face of Homelessness: Flagler County Shelter Sees Occupancy Double Amid Affordability Crisis

See the Sheltering Tree’s list of needs, suggested food items and ways to help here. 

As a week of freezing temperatures begins, Flagler County’s cold-weather shelter is bracing for a surge.

The volunteers at The Sheltering Tree, the nonprofit that runs the shelter at Bunnell’s Church on the Rock (also known as the Rock Transformation Center), are witnessing the sharp end of the region’s affordability crisis, as more residents find themselves in distress. 

Average occupancy at the shelter last year was 10 to 12 people. When it last opened in late December, it drew 26 people. It’s not your stereotypical homeless population anymore.

“We had two people come in from work the last days we were open, literally leaving work and arriving at 7 o’clock and leaving the next morning and going back to work,” says Martin Collins, vice president of the Sheltering Tree’s board. “Middle class people are finding themselves struggling with working class issues, and working class people are finding themselves struggling with poverty.” Others are living in their cars. 

“Every Tuesday we open to help people who are in distress,” he says of the weekly outreach from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bunnell’s Bridges United Methodist Fellowship (formerly First United Methodist Church) at 205 North Pine Street. The organization provides needs most essential to the homeless, or the unhoused, as the preferred term may be: tents, sleeping bags, bicycles and non-perishable foods. 

“More and more we’re helping average, hard-working people who just can’t make ends meet,” Collins said. In the past year the number of people the Sheltering Tree helps on Tuesdays has doubled from the low 30s every week to 70 or more. “They’re not able to pay water bills, light bills or unable to deal with a car issue.” For people who live paycheck to paycheck, a single unexpected expense, like a car repair or a medical bill, can throw a family or an individual from subsistence to distress. 

The affordability crisis trends are not anecdotal. According to the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, Flagler County residents who work in restaurants, tourism service jobs or retail make between $28,000 and 37,000 a year and can only afford rent of $700 to $900, if they are to spend no more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Yet the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the county is just under $1,700. 

Among the 50 states Florida has the highest proportion of people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act for health coverage. The end of enhanced subsidies for the ACA has affected 108,000 residents in the six counties that form the 6th Congressional District, which includes all of Flagler County. A 40-year-old making $31,000 saw his or her silver plan premiums jump 165 percent. A 60-year-old saw the premium increase 275 percent, with average premiums for all enrollees jumping 84 percent. (The figures are based on Kaiser Family Foundation data.) 

In November, Flagler County’s unemployment rate spiked to 6.1 percent, the highest level since October 2020, with 3,379 unemployed residents in the county, also the highest figure in over five years. The federal government’s interruption of food assistance during and after the government shutdown upended food budgets for the needy and increased turnout at local food pantries. 

“When I started serving as team leader monthly totals were around 50 client visits.  We were also operating out of three rooms within the church,” said John Davis of the New Room Food Pantry at Flagler Beach’s United Methodist Church,   Now in our newly remodeled spaces we are now distributing food to over 200 families per month.  Our number of visits swelled to 240 client visits during November I assume due to the recent government shutdown and loss of SNAP benefits.” Like other local food pantries, New Room was among those receiving a one-time grant from Flagler County government, which distributed $50,000 in emergency grants to help make up for food stamp interruptions. 

In addition to all that, accessing services such as food stamps (or supplemental nutrition assistance known as Snap), Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, Social Security and disability benefits has become much harder over the past year as the federal government tightens eligibility, reduces technical assistance, and increases hurdles. Collins said what used to take half an hour on the phone now can take upwards of 90 minutes. 

“We are finding that administrative changes to how benefit programs are administered can be an immense barrier for those who need them most—families in crisis or who are experiencing health concerns,” Carrie Baird, CEO of Flagler Cares, the social services coordinating nonprofit, said. “When you are in crisis, it can be very difficult to research, plan and gather all of the documentation needed—especially when the rules are always changing and the communication about those changes can be hard to find or understand.  This is one of the ways government reduces their expenses to provide services—people just can’t figure out how to properly apply even if they are eligible.” 

The Sheltering Tree, like Flagler Cares, offers some of that assistance. 

Today, Melanie Brown Woofter, president and CEO of the Florida Behavioral Health Association, informed members that the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration had canceled 2,000 grants valued at more than $2 billion across the country, which could have devastating effects for local nonprofits, reduce services for people in recovery, and add to stresses that result in further distress for individuals.  

The Sheltering Tree’s Tuesday outreach aside, the cold-weather shelter only opens when the temperature is expected to go below 40 degrees at night. Collins describes it as a huge team effort that requires numerous volunteers culled from area churches–among them First Baptist Church of Palm Coast, which contributes six teams, St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Flagler Beach United Methodist Church. The teams rotate between duties, and from night to night. 

It’s not a simple operation. Guests are checked in for security reasons, with a level of backgrounding that takes place, a team prepares the evening meal, another prepares breakfast, a team stays overnight for supervision, and yet another team cleans up. “

“We’re relying on help from local churches, generous individuals and local businesses to provide the head count to cover all those functions, and when we have to do two nights in a row or more, it becomes very difficult,” Collins said, especially as the location at Church on the Rock has other activities to account for. The Sheltering Tree’s cots, for example, have to be disassembled every time to make way for the other activities. 

The cold-weather shelter is opening Thursday and Friday night, and likely additional nights after that.

The county will provide bus transportation along two routes, according to this schedule:

• 3:30 p.m.: Dollar General at Publix Town Center
• 4:00 p.m.: Near the McDonald’s at Old Kings Road South and State Road 100
• 4:30 p.m.: Dollar Tree by Carrabba’s and Walmart
• 4:45 p.m.: Palm Coast Main Branch Library
• 4:30 p.m.: Bunnell Free Clinic
• 4:30 p.m.: Bridges United Methodist Fellowship in Bunnell, formerly First United Methodist Church

Call 386-437-3258, extension 105, for information about transportation to the shelter or for information about the shelter itself.

The shelter will open at its usual location at the Rock Transformation Center, previously known as Church on the Rock, 2200 N State St, Bunnell, at 5:30 p.m. It will close the following day at 8 a.m. Guests, who may be homeless or who may simply need a heated place, as some homes in the county lack heat, will receive a hot dinner and a hot breakfast, free of charge.