(Editor’s note: Florida Rep. Susan Plasencia recently criticized the homelessness crisis in East Orlando, placing partial blame on the Samaritan Resource Center and calling on its leaders to move the facility elsewhere. SRC executive director Zeynep Portway responds.)

At Samaritan Resource Center, mornings are busy.

People line up for a hot shower, a meal or support from a case manager. These are our neighbors. And lately, they have become the subject of a conversation that’s full of inaccuracies.

Samaritan Resource Center exists because churches and community partners kept seeing the same people show up at their doors, neighbors asking for help. Instead of turning them away or sending them elsewhere, they came together to create one place where individuals could access services, support, and a path forward. We are the only drop-in center of its kind in East Orange County, and we were built by this community, for this community.

The individuals living outside in our neighborhood are not strangers being drawn in from elsewhere. Most were last housed within just a few miles of here. They are neighbors who have been priced out, pushed out, or simply run out of options. There are no shelter beds in East Orlando. The nearest options are clustered 10 miles west, in Parramore, and they are full most nights. Across the region, rent continues to outpace wages, and Orlando is tied for the most severe shortage of housing accessible to extremely low-income people in the entire country. When people experience a crisis, there are fewer and fewer places to land.

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If Samaritan Resource Center were defunded or forced to relocate, East Orange County would lose its only coordinated point of access for homeless services. The case managers who know clients by name. The employment pathways. The housing connections. The relationships built over years that make it possible to reach someone who has stopped trusting institutions. None of that transfers easily. Some of it cannot be rebuilt at all.

Removing access to services does not solve homelessness. It scatters people and makes it harder for them to get help. Moving our building would not create housing, open shelter beds, or fix the conditions that lead to homelessness. That approach has been tried. It does not work.

What does work is consistent, community-based support, and that is exactly what Samaritan Resource Center provides every day. In 2025 alone, we served nearly 2,500 individuals in East Orange County. One hundred twenty-eight people secured employment, and 648 individuals moved into stable housing. Thousands more accessed meals, showers, mail services, and critical case management, often the first step toward stability.

That is not a theory. That is real, measurable change.

It is also important to be clear: as the executive director of Samaritan Resource Center, I welcome conversations about solutions. I have consistently brought the community together, hosted town halls, led community conversations, and spoke openly at local meetings to listen, collaborate, and find common ground. The narrative that I have been unwilling to engage is simply not accurate.

I have dedicated my life to this work, and I will continue to show up every day to make sure our neighbors are fed, clothed, and housed.

This community built Samaritan Resource Center. And right now, it needs this community to stand behind the work.

The SRC plans a Town Hall on May 21 at 5:30 p.m. at Spirit of Joy Church. Zeynep Portway has been executive director of the Samaritan Resource Center in East Orlando since 2020, leading efforts to provide essential services, connect people to housing, and create pathways to long-term stability. She was a finalist for the 2025 Central Floridian of the Year award.