{"id":7427,"date":"2025-10-16T23:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7427\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T23:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:09:13","slug":"waiting-with-bated-breath-harbor-house-of-central-florida-grant-on-hold-amid-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7427\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Waiting with bated breath:\u2019 Harbor House of Central Florida grant on hold amid government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 As lawmakers on Capitol Hill remain in a stalemate, the government shutdown is not only impacting workers but also organizations waiting on grants. <\/p>\n

The CEO of Harbor House of Central Florida<\/a>, a domestic violence shelter, says they\u2019re in a state of limbo as they are waiting to receive a $500,000 grant that can change survivors\u2019 lives. <\/p>\n

Michelle Sperzel is the CEO of Harbor House of Central Florida and says the federal grant helps break the cycle of domestic abuse. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the life of the grant just in these past three years, just in Orange County, we have been able to have 22 survivors and 44 kids,\u201d said Sperzel. <\/p>\n

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Sperzel says for the past six years, in partnership with Help Now of Osceola<\/a>, the federal grant from the Department of Justice has helped provide transitional housing for survivors of domestic violence both in Orange and Osceola County. <\/p>\n

When the grant cycle came up, Sperzel says they re-applied for it only to now be put on hold as the government remains shut down. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are literally waiting with bated breath to find out if we will be able to receive this grant again with the government being closed. We are just in a holding pattern,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

With the shelter full, the grant allows them to take individuals out of the emergency shelter and into their transitional housing program. Sperzel says in both counties they\u2019ve helped 34 adults and 54 kids get safe new roofs over their heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game-changer for individuals because we are able to help them with rent, and the lease is in their name. It\u2019s on a sliding scale so as they start to make more money, they can put more money towards the rent,\u201d said Sperzel. <\/p>\n

She hopes the government will reopen soon, as survivors in the program also get wrap-around services and a safe path towards a better life. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact that it makes in the lives of survivors is a game-changer,\u201d said Sprezel. <\/p>\n

Sperzel says they have around nine people in their emergency shelter waiting for transitional housing. However, she adds, they started a campaign for them to build transitional housing on site, so if something like this happens, they would still have housing for domestic violence survivors. <\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 As lawmakers on Capitol Hill remain in a stalemate, the government shutdown is not only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147,5713,28,30,29,1335,1976],"class_list":{"0":"post-7427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-central-florida","9":"tag-domestic-violence","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-osceola-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7427","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=7427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}