{"id":19725,"date":"2025-10-25T00:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T00:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19725\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T00:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T00:34:12","slug":"fl-conference-addresses-homelessness-amid-shrinking-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19725\/","title":{"rendered":"FL conference addresses homelessness amid shrinking support"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Policy leaders, housing experts and advocates from across Florida gathered in Orlando this week for the 2025 Florida Conference to End Homelessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The three-day event focuses on collaboration, strategy and solutions at a time when communities face rising housing costs, limited affordable options and reduced federal support.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Policy leaders, housing experts and advocates from across Florida gathered in Orlando for the\u00a02025 Florida Conference to End Homelessness<\/a>
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The three-day event focused on collaboration, strategy and solutions at a time when communities face rising housing costs, limited affordable options and reduced federal support
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A major challenge for Florida\u2019s homeless services comes from the end of federal support for the\u00a0SOAR TA (Technical Assistance) Program<\/a>, which helped individuals experiencing homelessness apply for Social Security disability benefits
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The coalition estimates over\u00a030,000 Floridians are currently without stable housing<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a number that continues to grow. Conference leaders emphasize the need for stronger collaboration among public agencies, housing authorities and developers to address the crisis<\/p>\n

From city outreach teams to nonprofit organizations, Florida is working to meet people experiencing homelessness where they are \u2014 offering resources, support, and, sometimes, a second chance<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the great things about this conference is it\u2019s not just about the training in the classroom \u2014 it\u2019s the networking and the problem-solving that happens outside of the workshops,\u201d said\u00a0Leeanne Sacino, executive director of the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness, which hosts the annual event.<\/p>\n

A major challenge for Florida\u2019s homeless services comes from the end of federal support for the\u00a0SOAR TA (Technical Assistance) Program<\/a>, which helped individuals experiencing homelessness apply for Social Security disability benefits. The program\u2019s technical assistance center, which trained thousands of professionals nationwide, closed in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo SOAR connects individuals with Social Security income. If an individual is disabled and doesn\u2019t have Social Security, a SOAR-trained professional can take the legwork, reduce the need for legal services, and lower the cost for someone to get on Social Security and Medicaid,\u201d Sacino explained.<\/p>\n

Brian Postlewait, CFO of the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness, said, \u201cIt\u2019s a very pivotal year in this country around homelessness. Policy changes could reduce funding for permanent supportive housing \u2014 and that\u2019s a problem. We\u2019ve worked so hard over the last 10 years housing the hardest-to-house people in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coalition estimates over\u00a030,000 Floridians are currently without stable housing<\/a> \u2014 a number that continues to grow. Conference leaders emphasize the need for stronger collaboration among public agencies, housing authorities and developers to address the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, our goal is the same \u2014 to make sure every Floridian has a safe, stable place to live,\u201d Sacino said.<\/p>\n

The Florida Conference to End Homelessness continues through Friday in Orlando, bringing together stakeholders determined to create actionable solutions for one of the state\u2019s most pressing issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Policy leaders, housing experts and advocates from across Florida gathered in Orlando this week for the 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[16022,274,2375,28,1644,115,139,141,140,135,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-19725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-housing","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-fadia-patterson","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}