MELBOURNE, Fla. — The issue of unhoused folks experiencing homelessness is not a unique issue to the City of Melbourne, but it’s one that The Harbor City is trying to address with some of its community partners.
What You Need To Know
- Daily Bread has been operating since the late 1980s as a soup kitchen in Melbourne
- The executive director of the Daily Bread says they plan to relocate to another location under a different operating system
- If the Daily Bread gets permission to open its proposed ‘Grace Place’ complex, it would close its current location
One of those is the Daily Bread, a non-profit dating back to 1988 that offers a daily meal to those that come to its campus on East Fee Avenue. But its presence downtown has been a point of contention for some who argue that it drives up the number of unhoused people who loiter near Daily Bread and in other parts of downtown.
That’s why Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey said he had staff add an agenda item for the council to discuss the Daily Bread’s Conditional Use Permit. He said his office received numerous complaints about the impacts of Daily Bread.
In a statement to Spectrum News 13, Alfrey said, “Accountability is for everyone, which includes the Daily Bread.” In a Facebook post later, he added that “As I greatly appreciate the work the organization does, it is apparent that there have been major negative impacts to the residents nearby and to Downtown Melbourne.”
Daily Bread’s Executive Director Jeff Njus said the nonprofit has been making a concerted effort to address the concerns of the community.
“In the last several weeks, we’ve had an intentional, intense effort, with nightly patrols, to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Njus said. “And I have to give credit to the people that are experiencing homelessness in our community. They’ve realized that’s an issue and they’ve stepped up.”
Njus said they are also in the very early stage of a new development called “Grace Place.” If approved by the City of Melbourne, it would accommodate a combination of affordable housing and emergency-shelter beds.
“We would have 60, semi-private pods for people in the shelter and 11 respite units. These medical respite units would be for people that are coming out of a hospital or a nursing care situation, that need a place to continue to rehab, we would have the support there,” Njus said. “Right now, sometimes people arrive at Daily Bread in a hospital gown and we’re not able to provide the resources they need to continue their health recovery, but would be able to provide that in Grace Place.”
He said next door to the shelter would be their housing support with 62 units in a combination of one- and two-bedroom options. Between the two sides, they could house about 150 people. Njus said this would be for stays between 30 and 60 days.
“60 days is kind of industry standard, but we won’t be hard and fast on that. It’ll depend on the person’s circumstance,” Njus said. “We recognize the challenge of the housing situation, but what we call ‘outflow’ is going to be very important. We know we’ll have plenty of inflow, but we want to make sure we’re connecting people to housing on the other end, so that people don’t get stuck in a shelter.”
Njus said he’s had conversations with both city councilmembers as well as those in the area where Grace Place is proposing to be located along Sarno Road. He said he hoped to start getting the necessary permissions and permits from the city this summer, but that may take time.
In his Facebook post, Alfrey stated that there will not be a vote during the May 23 council meeting regarding Grace Place.
“There needs to be accountability at their current location and many of our residents who live in the area of the current location need to be heard!” Alfrey wrote.
Njus said his non-profit has $2.5 million earmarked from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to help with the project that’s estimated to cost about $12 million. Because Grace Place would replace Daily Bread’s current Fee Avenue operation, they will sell that property too.
According to the non-profit’s most recent IRS Form 990 published by ProPublica, in the Fiscal Year ending in 2020, Daily Bread’s total revenue was about $2.1 million with roughly $1.6 in functional expenses.
In addition to the Daily Bread, Njus said they have other partners in the Grace Place venture, like Brevard Health Alliance. He said if the funding comes together, “hopefully a year from now, we’d be at the point where we could break ground, maybe take a year and a half to build. So, that would give us the timeframe to be prepared to open in 2025.”
In the meantime, he said their focus is trying to become better neighbors where they are now through methods like better-controlling access to their campus and discouraging those going through homelessness from just hanging around their facility after the meal has been served.
“Our neighbors in need, people that are homeless have stepped up and said, ‘We’re going to take care of this. And every morning, before we start serving morning coffee, we make sure that not just our campus is clean, but our neighboring streets are clean and our folks have stepped up to do that,” Njus said. “And now, that’s happening with any issues of people loitering, sleeping or hanging around during the day, after hours and overnight. That’s just not going to work.”
Nearby business owner Tom Walker said he’s seen some improvement in the past few weeks and recognizes that it’s a tough balancing act.
“I’ve had some customers, not so much in the last couple of weeks, but before that when there was a lot of crazy stuff happening down here, that came in and they were, they said, ‘We’re not coming down here after 5 o’clock,’” Walker said. “And I don’t think the downtown earned that reputation, but that’s how social media spreads, that’s how word of mouth spreads. That’s how things happen.”
The Melbourne City Council will discuss the conditional use permit of the Daily Bread during Tuesday night’s meeting.
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