An organization focused on helping the homeless in Citrus County is in the process of creating a new facility specifically designed for families.
- Nonprofit purchased Beverly Hills Motel in 2017
- Facility designed to allow families to remain together
- More information? Visit campaign page
Path of Citrus County has a vision to turn the Beverly Hills Motel into a safe haven for families to come and get their lives back on track, and that vision is getting closer to becoming a reality.
Path bought the Beverly Hills Motel for $1.1 million in August 2017 and has been hard at work getting the site renovated. In about a year, organizers plan to open the facility as a place for families to stay together, which wasn't always possible at it’s other shelter.
"In our county we were consistently turning down 3 out of 4 phone calls for women and children they either had too many children they had a child that was of sexual age," DuWayne Sipper with the Path of Citrus County said. "It could be a couple that was already married, they didn't want to be separated. Sometimes it was even a man who had custody of children."
The property has 30 rooms, some even with a small kitchen; a restaurant, a multipurpose area, and several smaller buildings to be used for counseling and security. Path also plans to have on-site job training to help get people back out into the workforce.
"This is a game changer for changing people's lives, and not to mention for the people who are checking in here but those in the community who want to hire them," Sipper explained.
"Our goal here is to get people back into circulation healthy as a whole person, and that's why we purchased the motel -- to put people back into the work system or into a work program," he added.
They expect the total cost of the renovation to be around $500,000. Thursday will mark the official launch of the Path’s Family Mission Campaign. You can read more about the campaign and make a donation here.