- February 14, 2025
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Overnight “feels like” temperatures dipped into the 20s last week in Central Florida, and homeless folks were at risk of developing hypothermia if they slept outside. They were spared the miserable conditions when Matthew’s Hope shifted gears to become a temporary shelter to give them hot meals and a warm place indoors to rest their bodies on the frigid nights.
The cold weather shelter opened Sunday, Jan. 19, and closed nearly a week later.
“We base it on the wind chill factor, and the wind chill factor was in the mid- to low 30s, and one night it was high 20s,” said Matthew’s Hope founder Scott Billue. “Your body is just not prepared to handle that cold for any length of time. Most of these people have health issues, like diabetes and high blood pressure.”
A total of 175 sleep pallets were made for children and adults in need of a warm place to sleep.
When the homeless ministry ran out of floor space at its facility in Winter Garden, it reached out to the community for help. Answering the call were West Orange Dream Center and Church at the Cross.
“All we asked people to do was to give us a little bit of real estate on their carpet,” said Matthew’s Hope founder Scott Billue. “We gave them showers, put them in fresh clothes, fed them and transported them and then picked them up before breakfast. All the places had to do for us was open up their foyer, and that’s what they did, just to make the people a little more comfortable.”
At the Matthew’s Hope center, people were sleeping in the staff offices, food pantry, hair salon, dining area and hallways.
“We pretty much had them everywhere but in the shop and medical area and bathrooms,” Billue said. “We could sit there and say, ‘We just can’t help you’ and turn them away, which is something we’ve never done, or we could pray about it and step out in faith and help these people the best way we can. We just sucked it up and did what we could.”
He expressed his gratitude for the community walking alongside the ministry and “showing up” in its time of need.
“They brought in food, they looked at our list of what was needed in the way of bedding (and) of clothing,” he said.
Residents showed up with cots and blankets, and they made sure the homeless were well fed with breakfast casseroles, fresh fruit, homemade soup, chili, lasagna, spaghetti and meat sauce, beef stroganoff, and other hearty meals.
“They ate great; a lot of them were telling us they would give us a five-star rating,” Billue said. “They were so grateful.”
BURNING THROUGH RESOURCES
It typically costs more than $20,000 daily to operate Matthew’s Hope’s programs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday — two days each at the facility and through the mobile ministry. The costs skyrocketed caring for the crowd 24 hours per day for an entire week and providing three meals every day plus snacks and extra showers.
During the weeklong sheltering, Billue said, Matthew’s Hope was burning through a month’s worth of resources every three days.
The shelters remained open 24 hours a day for the entire week, and about half of the people stayed the entire time. Others came and went, taking advantage of the Matthew’s Hope transportation team that circled throughout the communities the ministry serves.
“As the weather would mellow out a little bit, people would get anxious — it’s a lot of people in one spot,” Billue said.
Many of them went to work and returned after their shifts.
“People forget that a lot of these people are working people,” Billue said. “They’re working jobs that nobody wants, janitorial work, cleaning work, overnight work — so we made sure they knew if they got off work at 2 in the morning we had a spot for them.”
West Orange Dream Center housed more than 26 individuals, and Church at the Cross made space for 23 people. Many families with children were sent to these locations.
The Dream Center made several Facebook posts about its four-day experience:
“While we are not a homeless shelter, we are a community center committed to helping individuals build brighter futures through our programs. We believe in times of urgent need, it’s important to step in and support our neighbors. This is how we live out our mission to build trust, transform lives and live the gospel. We were grateful to provide shelter to those who would have otherwise been outside in the cold.
“We are only able to do what we do because of the generous support from our community. As you can imagine, this event and the additional resources it has required are stretching our already-tight budget. We anticipate this will amount to about $4,000 in unplanned expenses. Any contributions you’re able to make will be very much appreciated and will allow us to continue our mission.”
Two other churches not in the immediate area offered to help, too, but it didn’t work logistically to transport people to and from the facilities, Billue said.
Matthew’s Hope has about nine people involved in the day-to-day outreach ministry, and they spent the week working 12-hour shifts to make sure there were enough hands and enough security.
“My staff, I could not be more proud of them,” Billue said. “No one complained; they just did what they had to do. … We haven’t seen this kind of weather since we opened the first time 15 years ago. It was like a rerun but just more massive. At that time, we were trying to help 25 people.”
FULL CIRCLE
It was exactly this same cold-weather situation 15 years ago that prompted Billue to start what would become the homeless ministry Matthew’s Hope.
It began as a response to inclement weather in 2010, when the temperature dipped below 39 degrees. The dangerous weather prompted Billue and a few friends to ask churches in the area to temporarily house the homeless population who stayed outside. West Orange Church of Christ agreed and, over the course of several weeks, allowed people in this community to sleep, eat and stay warm inside their building, sometimes days at a time.
“This is what it takes — an open heart and a few square feet of floor space,” Billue said.
He never could have imagined 15 years after opening the first cold-weather shelter that he would be serving even more homeless folks today.
“It’s a call God put on my life,” Billue said. “The Matthew’s Hope staff would say as a whole, ‘If not us, then who will?’"