Get help from Family Promise of Greater Orlando.
The rapid growth in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties continues to make affordable housing more difficult to get. Family Promise of Greater Orlando is a local nonprofit that focuses almost exclusively on stabilizing families with children. The Greater Orlando affiliate operates programs that address local housing pressures and seasonal employment patterns. The charity provides rapid rehousing, intensive case management, and help people get help from other community partnerships. Learn more about the programs from Family Promise of Greater Orlando below, including how they help people across central Florida.
Temporary housing and programs that focus on long term stability
The foundation of the organization is its emergency shelter for the unhoused and housing stabilization work. Families stay in local faith communities that volunteer space, meals, transportation, and basic necessities. Staff provide case management and connect families to housing resources while the congregational network supplies daily support.
They provide overnight lodging to the guests. Congregations usually offer private or semi-private bedrooms for each family or maybe even each member, if they have space. Other services include sack lunches, home-cooked dinner, and a breakfast are provided every day. Access to shower and laundry facilities are also provided to the homeless who need them
- Unlike many Family Promise affiliates in other parts of the country that rely primarily on rotating congregational shelter networks, the Greater Orlando program sometimes offers a motel/hotel sheltering model, even including free extended stay hotel rooms. This can occur from time to time due to two realities: the shortage of volunteer host congregations in the metro area and the rise of families displaced from theme-park-driven service jobs during economic downturns.
The rapid rehousing program offered by Family Promise of Greater Orlando is another local differentiator. Central Florida’s rental increases have outpaced income growth for years, and the organization focuses heavily on negotiating with landlords, securing short-term rental assistance, and providing ongoing budget counseling so families can maintain a long-term lease.
- Rapid rehousing / homeless prevention in Orlando assists families with securing apartments by offering short-term rental assistance and case management. The Family Promise of Greater Orlando program helps with rent, utilities, deposits, budgeting, and housing stabilization. Case managers work with families for up to nine months to help them build income, maintain payments, and sustain long-term tenancy.
Staff work with apartment complexes across central Florida that accept families with past evictions or limited credit, which is a major challenge in the Orlando rental market. The agency also collaborates with Orange County’s Housing and Community Development Division to match eligible families to available units and to use federal Emergency Solutions Grant funds when possible.
Prevention and diversion programs help families avoid entering shelter altogether. This is a major part of the Greater Orlando operation. Families receive mediation with landlords or roommates, help resolving conflicts that threaten housing, guidance on budgeting, access to limited financial support when available, and referrals to other community resources.
- The goal is to prevent homelessness whenever possible and reduce the trauma and instability associated with moves, school disruption, and separation from support systems. Local prevention efforts also include help with paying security deposits, support with resolving utility disconnections, and guidance on accessing financial help in Orange County or Osceola County assistance program.
Brighter Days Youth Housing is another unique program. It serves young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four who are experiencing homelessness. This program provides housing with supportive services tailored to youth navigating early adulthood without stable housing. Many Family Promise affiliates do not operate a dedicated youth housing initiative, making this a distinctive feature of the Greater Orlando operation.
The veterans housing program is also notable. Family Promise of Greater Orlando leases homes for veteran families and maintains the lease itself while the family works with case managers to stabilize financially. After a year of progress, the family takes over the lease and continues with follow-up support. This lease-to-family model is uncommon within the Family Promise network and exists because of local demand and available funding partnerships.
Other ways Family Promise of Greater Orlando helps people in central Florida
Family Promise of Greater Orlando participates in community education, mentoring and volunteer engagement programs to strengthen the broader safety net for families. Their community initiatives include mentoring, financial coaching, resource navigation, and programs designed to bring volunteers into direct service roles with families. This emphasis on community-driven support reflects the organization’s congregational roots and the region’s long tradition of coordinated faith-based assistance, with other churches in Orange County FL also offering help.
Another focus of Family Promise of Greater Orlando is its employment and financial coaching model. The program partners with employers in tourism, hospitality, transportation, and warehousing, which reflects the regional job market. Case managers help parents obtain certifications needed for higher paying roles in hotels, distribution centers, and health care support positions.
- The faith based agency holds occasional workshops and refers people to CareerSource Central Florida to connect clients to training, child care support, and job placement. CareerSource Central Florida can be found at https://www.careersourcecentralflorida.com. This employment focus is stronger here than in many other Family Promise affiliates, because stable income is essential to remaining housed in one of Florida’s most dependent on tourism, therefore relatively highest cost metropolitan areas.
Contact information
What makes this affiliate different from others in the Family Promise network is its broad mix of housing programs, mentoring/education and the veterans lease-transition model. Many Family Promise locations operate one or two core programs, usually congregational shelter and rapid rehousing, while the Greater Orlando site has developed a more robust set of housing options that serve multiple stages of need.
The long-term stabilization programs are also more structured than in many other service areas, which gives families additional support as they rebuild stability in Central Florida’s high-cost housing environment. The main location is at 1000 Clay St, Winter Park, FL 32789 and call Family Promise at (407) 951-8269.
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