Octavian Cantilli and his wife bought their home in south Orlando in part because it was close to Wadeview Park. But in recent years, he said, unpleasant encounters with homeless people have made them reluctant to take their kids to the park’s playground.

“Some of them would just sit there quietly and not disturb anybody. But then quite a few of them would curse each other out, yell at people walking by, would have an aggressive dog that would bark and growl at people,” Cantilli said. “We’ve caught some of them doing drugs.”

To get people off the streets, Orlando is considering turning a former work release center on Kaley Avenue into a homeless shelter.

But Cantilli and other residents of his SoDo neighborhood — so called because it is south of downtown — hate that plan, worried a new shelter within a mile of their homes would, rather than address the problem, bring more homeless people to their section of Orlando.

The dispute underscores how deeply difficult it is to build new facilities for the homeless in an urban area, even as state law has ratcheted up the pressure to get people out of parks and off the streets. While many people in a progressive city like Orlando agree that government ought to do more to help the less fortunate, few seem to want the homeless nearby.

Orlando Health, which has a hospital, emergency room and children’s hospital near the Kaley Avenue site, is also opposed to the proposed shelter.

But city officials say a new shelter would provide housing and help to those without homes and reduce problems in the community. About 375 people sleep on the streets of downtown Orlando on any given night, according to Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office, part of a growing population of homeless people in Central Florida.

“If you don’t take care of people, and house them, and you don’t have a place for them to go, they’re going to be more of a nuisance to you,” said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan.

The city is proposing a “low barrier” shelter, meaning there would be minimal requirements for people to enter and children would not be allowed, and that plays into the opposition’s concerns.

“Most of your homeless shelters have rules for entry, being a part of a program and various things like that. The low-barrier model is not that. It is come and go as you want. Store your stuff. No requirement regarding sobriety,” said Andy Gardiner, senior vice president of external affairs and community relations for Orlando Health.

The city has a preliminary agreement with Orange County to turn the closed work release center at 130 W. Kaley Ave. — which once housed low-risk inmates paying the price of their crimes — into a shelter. It is not yet sure what the capacity would be. But opponents believe it will be similar to the work release center, which was about 300 beds.

Cantilli and other residents hope to keep those beds away from their neighborhood with a StopSoDoShelter website, yard signs, mailers and by making their opposition known at city meetings.

“The concept that these people are going to just stay on campus, I think we can agree is unrealistic,” said James Krawczyk, who has lived in the neighborhood his entire life and doesn’t want the shelter nearby.

All of Orange County’s homeless shelters are in downtown Orlando, and they do not meet the demands of the area’s growing homeless population, city officials said. In fact, about 800 more beds are needed.

A new state anti-camping law, which took effect on Jan. 1, makes it illegal for people to sleep in public spaces and allows residents and others to file complaints and sue if the city doesn’t remove them.

“Then you’ll see the few resources we already have for the homeless designated towards lawsuits, and the problem will only get worse. We have to do something,” said Lisa Portelli, the mayor’s senior adviser for homelessness.

The new law has officials scrambling to create more shelter beds, so police have places besides jail to drop off people caught sleeping on the street.

In September, the city pieced together a deal which would’ve brought a 250-bed shelter to downtown near the Parramore neighborhood.

But Parramore residents, noting all the county’s current shelters are in or near their neighborhood, objected, and the city then scrapped that plan and set its sights on the empty facility on Kaley Avenue.

Kyle Steele, who lives about 100 yards from the new proposed shelter, is among those who want the city to look elsewhere again.

At a November meeting, Steele told the Orlando City Council that homeless people have attempted to break into his family’s home in the middle of the night.

“Individuals who were homeless and obviously struggling from mental health, try to open our door up at 3 in the morning, which was captured on our Ring cam,” Steele said.

Packages are stolen from his front porch so often, he said, that he has his mail forwarded to his office.

“While I do understand the pressing need to address homelessness, I believe the current plan, as it stands, poses a significant risk to the safety and security of the community, and to property values,” Steele said.

Orlando Health, which is building a new $160 million children’s hospital half a mile from the proposed shelter, agrees the shelter doesn't belong near its facilities nor close to a neighborhood with schools and parks, Gardiner said.

Commissioner Jim Gray, who represents a district centered on Lake Nona in south Orlando and voted against the shelter plan at a city council meeting on Nov. 4, said Orlando Health has "legitimate concerns " about the city's proposal. “Orlando Health has invested a lot in building the campus there," Gray said.

But Commissioner Shan Rose, who represents Parramore and voted for the shelter, said the encounters with homeless people that worry residents are exactly why the shelter is needed.

“We have been getting complaints, there have been 911 calls about an increased homeless population down in that area. So this creates an opportunity for the city of Orlando to get folks off the streets, not just physically for one night, but work to get them back on their feet,” Rose said.

Sheehan, who also voted for the shelter, said the hospital is partly to blame for the increased homeless population in the neighborhood.

“Honestly, I think the problem is that people go to the hospital, get services, and the hospital just throws them on the street, and there’s nowhere for them to go,” Sheehan said.

Portelli agreed.

“Over the years, we’ve received multiple complaints and concerns from neighbors about people released in the neighborhood, as well as dropped off at the shelters, recent discharges, still wearing hospital gowns and things,” she said.

But Gardiner denied Orlando Health discharges patients into the neighborhood, saying hospitals work to find people transportation, connections to churches or "other opportunities throughout the community."

“We’re not familiar with individuals walking around in gowns,” he said.

On a recent visit to the gas station near his home in the middle of the day, with his two young daughters in the car, Cantilli saw a man in hospital scrubs sitting on the curb. He had his pants down around his ankles and was masturbating.

“I’ve absolutely hit my tolerance for this nonsense,” Cantilli said.

At a city council meeting earlier this month, Dyer told shelter opponents the city has not made a final decision and would continue to listen to residents as it studies whether the building can be renovated as a shelter.

But, he added, “We would like to locate a facility there.”

_____

©2025 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.