Engagement center set to open soon

Karla Greenway, the CEO of Interfaith Emergency Services, describes the new Engagement Center that is under construction at Interfaith Emergency Services on Northwest 2nd Street in Ocala, Fla. on Friday, March 22, 2024. The Engagement Center will help Interfaith Emergency Services clients and homeless people. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

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Posted March 25, 2024 | By Andy Fillmore, andy@ocalagazette.com

The new Interfaith Emergency Services Engagement Center under construction in downtown Ocala is on track to open in August.

The 6,500-square-foot, single-story, $1.6 million facility located at 108 N. Pine Ave. will accommodate an additional IES staffer and about 30 volunteers to provide an array of services for those in need in the community, with a focus on the homeless.

IES CEO Karla Greenway explained that the new center will concentrate services in one convenient location for persons who may not have transportation. It will house a computer center, skills center, laundry and a host of social services, such as grocery assistance, workbooks, gas cards, government issued ID assistance and free reading glasses.

Social services are currently provided from the IES offices at 435 N.W. 2nd St. and the IES Center for Life, a 3,748-square-foot structure built in 1975, which is located on North Pine Avenue adjacent to the new Engagement Center. The Hope Clinic and Freedom Dental will remain in the Center for Life.

Amber Poland will serve as manager of the new Engagement Center and also act as one of the new center’s two staff members. Poland’s position is funded by a grant from United Way of Marion County.

“We will be able to provide structure, resources and a dedicated space where they feel seen, heard and valued. The friendships built, combined with the services provided, will allow clients to feel empowered to take control of their employment and housing,” Poland wrote in part in a text. “The engagement center will provide us with the opportunity to give the one thing that the chronically homeless need most—hope.”

Poland said she’s grateful to show “God’s love” to those who seek help at the new center.

Greenway said she expects the ability of the organization to help the homeless to effectively “double.”

“In the last quarter of last year, we provided services to 170 (individual) homeless persons,” Greenway said. She said 52 of those people were assisted into some type of housing and were “off the street.”

“This was done with one staff member in one room,” in the existing IES Center for Life and IES offices on Northwest 2nd Street, Greenway said.

“The new Engagement Center will offer ‘wrap around’ services in one place, like help with getting identification needed to enter some shelters, driver’s licenses and provide access to a computer and even get mail,” she said.

Greenway said future plans include partnering with local mental health providers, CareerSource Citrus Levy Marion and the Marion County Literacy Council, and that IES may consider hiring a mental health counselor.

Greenway said she also looks forward to partnering with city and county agencies that help the homeless, especially in light of new legislation.

HB 1365 was signed recently and will become effective in October. It includes “(homeless) individuals are prohibited from camping on city streets, sidewalks, and parks—and instead placed in temporary shelters monitored by law enforcement agencies” and “shelters will also include substance abuse and mental health treatments,” according to flgov.com, the website for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The legislation “directs the Department of Children and Families to authorize temporary campsites” which maintain sanitation and have running water and restrooms; and that do the following: and “provide access to substance abuse and mental health treatment resources through coordination with the regional managing entity” while prohibiting the use of alcohol and illegal substances,” the website states.

Greenway said although low barrier shelters would be a great step forward, more “supportive housing” and “case management” is needed.

Shelters that, for example, intake people directly from the street with little or no identification or entry requirements, are referred to as “low barrier.” She feels that without case management and guidance, the person taken “off the streets” might go right back.

“The (most) need is for funding and human resources. For every one person doing field outreach with the homeless, we need three case managers,” Greenway said.

The Marion FL-514 Continuum of Care is the HUD funded group of local help agencies focused on helping the homeless. The group includes Arnette House, Brother’s Keeper, Citra First United Methodist Church, Community of Gratitude, Families in Need of Dunnellon, First Baptist Church of Belleview, First Baptist Church of Salt Springs, Food for Christ, HELP Agency of the Forest, IES, Love Inc. of the Heart of Florida, Ramah Missionary Baptist Church, Saving Mercy, Shepherd’s Lighthouse, Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church, The Salvation Army, United Way of Marion County, Marion County  Veterans Helping Veterans and Wings of Faith.

According to the city of Ocala’s website, the city and Marion County form the Joint Office of Homelessness Prevention, the “lead agency for federal funding.” The Marion County staff primarily oversees funding and applications, while the city of Ocala staff is the lead agency for handling outreach efforts, Coordinated Entry and the Homeless Management Information System,” the site notes.

Greenway said every agency has a “piece of the puzzle” in addressing homelessness, including organizations like the nonprofits Wear Gloves, which provides work skills, and Saving Mercy, which helps with housing and case management.

Greenway said the area has about 25 beds available in the county for “supportive housing” but “we need 200.” She said IES has an apartment building in northeast Ocala that has 10 bedrooms available for chronically homeless people and eight for very low-income people. The IES offices at 435 S.W. 2nd St. can accommodate about 37 people in emergency situations.

The new Engagement Center was financed in part by a $600,000 community development block grant through Marion County Community Services, IES funds and an anonymous private benefactor, according to Greenway.

She’s looking forward to getting into the new facility and serving the community.

“We’re excited,” she said.

To learn more, go to iesmarion.org