St.Matthew’s House to open new shelter in Fort Myers

Author: Camila Pereira Writer: Tim Belizaire
Published: Updated:
St. Matthews House
Credit: St. Matthews House

St. Matthew’s House is working to open a new shelter in Fort Myers. It will help homeless families stay together as they get back on their feet.

A critical need for shelters, especially for women and children in Fort Myers, led to St. Matthews house making a trip from Naples.

Steve Brooder is the CEO of St. Matthew’s House. He noticed an uptick in the number of women who were homeless.

“The need is great. We saw the point-in-time count, which was done in January, showed a 33% increase in the number of women that are homeless, 24 over 23. So this is going to help a lot to have a shelter for women and children exclusively in Fort Myers,” he said.

St. Matthews House’s new women and children homeless shelter has a goal of housing 300 residents each year.

They have a lot of work to do from flooring and installing sinks to building a kitchen.

They want to create a space to house 28 women and children and 11 families in private rooms.

The goal is to have a shelter that will be surrounded by so many resources aimed at helping women, children and families get the support they need to get back on their feet.

“They going to get back to work,” said Brooder. “They’re going to find daycare, which we help them with. We help them with tutoring. This is a great spot, we’re right in the heart of the city.”

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