ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — There's good news for a homeless center in St. Johns County that was booted off its original location in 2021.
On Tuesday, the St. Johns County Commission voted to give the program more than $2 million.
Chester Holston is happy about it. He has a lot to be happy about right now.
"When you interviewed me a year ago, I was homeless," he told First Coast News Tuesday.
Holston was working at Home Again St. Johns, a homeless center, but he had no home at the time.
"I was living in the woods. It was rough. I didn't know how I was going to eat," he recalled. "Home Again helped me out so much that I got back on my feet again. I just bought a condo."
Holston is one of many homeless people that Home Again St. Johns helps. But the program has had its own share of troubles.
About a year and a half ago, the program's facility was on county-owned land on State Road 207 in St. Augustine. However, the St. Johns County Commission bumped the organization off that land in order to snag some much-needed funding to build workforce housing on that site.
Since then, Home Again St. Johns has been working out of a trailer on Holmes Boulevard. There’s water, but you can’t drink it, one bathroom, no sewer, and a shower that is a garden hose.
"We're excited," Ellen Walden said. She's the Executive Director of Home Again St. Johns.
The money will help pay for land which is on State Road 16 across from the old Harry's Curb Mart. The money will also build eight small apartments for the homeless as well as a 3,000 square foot homeless center.
"We’ll provide everything we did on 207," Walden explained. "Laundry. showers, case management, resource and referral services."
While the $2.2 million from the county Tuesday is a huge boost for the program, it still doesn’t make the organization whole. Before the county evicted Home Again St. Johns off the land on 207, the program had plans to expand there.
"We would’ve had 96 units. Now we have eight," Walden noted.
Eight apartments are planned for the new place, instead of the plan from 2021 for 96.
However, it’s better than what the program has now. And those plans will help more homeless people get into homes, just like Holsten has.
"It’s good we’re going to be at the new place and help other people out."