INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Roughly 300 people gathered at the barrier island’s Catholic church Thursday for the first-ever public gathering to learn about Camp Haven. The goal at Holy Cross was to inform the audience that Indian River County is in dire need of a legal campground for hundreds of the residents who have lost their home due to foreclosures and job loss.
“Appropriately tonight, I think we should ask their help as we prepare for Camp Haven,” said Rev. Richard Murphy, the pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church. “This is not a charity, it is an act of justice.”
The group needs $1.4 million to get the project off the ground and running. A place for the camp has not been decided. Thursday’s event, a fund-raiser, was planned with the hope of netting $200,000 for the effort.
More than 60,000 people in the state of Florida are homeless on any given night. In Indian River County, the number of homeless is between 600 and 800 on a given night.
The Source, a Christian outreach ministry, has been working for about a year to create Camp Haven, a place where about 100 homeless families could legally camp while receiving services that could help them attain a job and a home to call their own.
Leaders in the group maintain there will be vigorous screening of clients and the idea is that Camp Haven would not be a homeless shelter, but instead would offer a safe place to pull people out of the grips of homelessness and despair.
As it stands now, when the newly displaced Indian River County residents come to the ministry for help, some are given a tent, some provisions and bug spray and then sent on their way to find their own spot, generally deep in the woods to lay their heads at night.
