- January 23, 2025
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While Volusia County will continue funding First Step Shelter for the next five years, it's contribution has been reduced.
The County Council voted 4-3 on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to provide the shelter with $400,000 in funding for this year — the same amount it has been contributing for the past five years. However, next year's funding will be reduced to $300,000, and then $200,000 for the remaining three years of the agreement. County Council Chair Jeff Brower, and Councilmen Troy Kent and Don Dempsey voted against.
As part of a 2017 agreement with the city of Daytona Beach, where the shelter is located, Volusia County contributed $2.5 million to First Step Shelter for its construction and agreed to provide $2 million for operations, the latter which was distributed at $400,000 a year for five years. This agreement for initial contributions ended on Sept. 30, 2024.
First Step Shelter has been "an enormously successful partnership" between Daytona Beach its partnering cities, said Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry at the meeting.
"It's probably been one of the most successful shelters in Florida, if not the most successful," said Henry, who serves as president of the shelter's board. "And I understand that success doesn't reconcile the challenge of considering using general fund monies to help us meet this challenge, but I have to say that the shelter has been very successful. We never wanted to be in the homelessness business as a city, and we too had hoped that after these five years, that we would be able to divorce ourselves from helping."
However, Henry said, the shelter serves 100 people, and as such, its budget has expanded. Over 1,600 people have utilized the shelter, and half of them have found permanent housing. The need continues to grow, and Henry said that without the county's full financial support, they won't be able to fill the gap.
First Step Shelter Executive Director Victoria Fahlberg cited a statistic by the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness that states the cost of one chronically homeless individual using pubic services — inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room fees, incarceration — is nearly $42,000 a year. First Step Shelter's costs are less than $2,800 per person, per year, she said.
"The return on investment to the community is extraordinary," Fahlberg said.
Last year, the shelter saw a 67% increase of the number of people daily at the shelter, which is at maximum capacity. The shelter also saw a 29% of the number of people brought into its safe zone.
Of the 822 people who have graduated from the shelter's program into permanent housing, 94% of those who have been stable for at least two years remain housed.
"Without county support, we will not be able to continue at full capacity," Fahlberg said. "We've been faithful stewards of the funds we've been provided by the county over five years."
Brower said everyone on the council supported helping the homeless, but the question for him was how much it would cost.
"We've given millions," he said. "We gave millions to establish it with the very clear idea that that was our role, to help increase capacity to get it established, and then we went beyond that for operation."
Councilman Jake Johansson suggested the council consider a "sundown plan."
"I don't like cutting people cold turkey," Johansson said. "This is a little bit different because this cold turkey was coming five years ago, based on the contract. ... As with most other programs, I want to wean people off of grant money where we can and be able to provide it to the people who need it the most."
Brower said he would be willing to support a smaller contribution — and if they got a new director.
In December, two former First Step Shelter employees in director roles filed a lawsuit against the shelter and the city of Daytona Beach, alleging they were fired after they provided Henry and the board of directors with a whistleblower letter, outlining complaints of management engaging in fraud, fiduciary malfeasance, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, as well as law and safety violations, according to the complaint.
"I don't think we should just ignore the whistleblowers," Brower said. "There's whistleblower laws for a reason, and I think there's serious issues that are brought forward, and I think they need to be dealt with."
Councilman David Santiago said he wasn't ignoring the whistleblowers, but that it's not their role to "make staffing decisions."
