WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — When many people think of homelessness, they picture what they see on city streets, but an entire group of homeless children is often out of sight.
For Lydia Adcock, moving to Winter Haven wasn’t part of a plan — it was a desperate escape. She fled her life in Colorado to get away from domestic violence and drug addiction, hoping to give her two children a safer future.
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“When you’re in a domestic violence situation or drug situation or any situation that you’re in, and you are crying out for change,” Adcock said.
But when she arrived in Winter Haven, the only place they could stay was a cramped bedroom in her father’s home.
“They’re thinking, 'yay we’re going to grandpa’s,' but they really didn’t realize that we’d be living in one bedroom for three months, in a full-size bed until Mommy can get her life back together,” Adcock said.
That is when Adcock called Heart for Winter Haven. The organization helped place her and her children into their own apartment. A home where they could finally start over.
“I contacted Heart and they did the paperwork, paid the payments and then I was in,” she said.
Adcock’s story is just one example of what child homelessness looks like. Heart for Winter Haven is determined to end child homelessness in the city by 2030.
“It’s not what people typically think of homeless, but even last year – and the numbers have gone down – there were 547 students just in Winter Haven public schools experiencing homelessness,” said Brad Beatty, executive director of Heart of Winter Haven.
To solve that, the nonprofit offers programs like Jobs for Life and Faith in Finances to help families build skills and income. In the last three years, the eviction prevention program has helped keep 255 families with school-aged children from being evicted.
“We got an eviction notice that we had to come here to ask for help. I never thought that I would need this, and we just got here, and I didn’t want my children to experience that type of homelessness,” said Sarahy Suarez.
Heart of Winter Haven is now closer to making sure no child is left without a home.
“And 140 families have been taken from homelessness, and we’ve helped them increase stable housing. That’s nearly 1,000 kids that would have or were homeless that are now stably housed,” Beatty said.
The nonprofit is also supporting a new initiative called Community Lending Partners to help residents build wealth by starting businesses.
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