One of the more innovative strategies the city of Orlando has taken to help homeless people get off the streets is on track to surpass its goal of housing roughly 400 people over a three-year period.
The city announced Thursday that the city’s “dignity bus” program — offering overnight shelter on two retrofitted Greyhound buses — has already helped 169 people find permanent housing since the program’s launch in August 2025.
The program, dubbed 407 Connect, is a partnership between the city, the Community Redevelopment Agency, and the Christian Service Center, a local homeless service nonprofit that runs a day center for homeless people just west of downtown in Parramore. It’s based off a similar bus shelter program based out of Vero Beach.
According to the city, Orlando’s bus shelter program has provided overnight shelter, case management, and other forms of support to 260 men, women and children total since launch.
Off to a good start
407 Connect is a three-year pilot program with a budget of $3 million, funded by the city and the CRA.
Two-thirds of that budget are going towards operational and staffing costs. The rest is dedicated to providing rental assistance, covering move-in costs, reuniting families forced apart and paying for other wraparound services intended to help individuals and families get into permanent, stable housing.
“A safe place to sleep should be the beginning of a path to housing, not the end of the conversation,” Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer said in a statement Thursday. “Our progress is a testament to what is possible when our staff, our service providers and our community work together to connect people with the support they need.”
The overnight shelter component of the 407 Connect program involves two Greyhound buses that were retrofitted last year. All of the seats were removed, and instead, there are 42 individual bunk-bed areas each equipped with a charging outlet, storage and privacy curtain. A security guard sits up front overnight, and there is a restroom onboard.
The buses are parked overnight on the Christian Service Center property. But, unlike the day center for Orlando’s homeless, the buses aren’t just open to everyone.
According to city staff, local homeless service partners search for homeless people or families to house onboard who they believe are likely to be self-sufficient and successfully find housing they can hold onto, with a little help.
Even holding down a part-time or full-time job in Orlando can be insufficient to cover the area’s high rents.
According to MIT’s living wage calculator, a single adult in the Orlando metro would need to earn $25.16 to adequately support themselves. With two working adults in the household, and two kids, both would need to earn a minimum of $27.01 to cover typical costs of food, transportation, housing and childcare.
“It’s individuals where we can identify a clear path, or somewhat of a general approach or plan, to get to self-sufficiency and being housed,” said David Barilla, executive director of Orlando’s Downtown Development Board, speaking to the press Thursday.
Meeting the need
A point-in-time count of the region’s homeless population, conducted this past January, found just over 2,700 people in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties who are either living temporarily in a homeless shelter or outdoors without any shelter at all.
Nearly three-quarters of them are concentrated in Orange County. This includes urban Orlando as well as rural, wooded areas in Bithlo and to the west in Winter Garden. More than 40 percent of the region’s homeless population is made up of children and adults aged 55 and older, according to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, a nonprofit that facilitated the count.
The region, however, is also struggling with a shortage of hundreds of shelter beds, according to city and county officials.
This fact alone helped spur the development of the 407 Connect program, since ideas to build a new, brick and mortar homeless shelter in Orlando have faced pushback from some who are lucky enough to have housing in the community.
“407 Connect gives our team the opportunity to build relationships, understand each person’s circumstances and provide the practical resources needed to help them move toward housing and greater stability,” said Christian Service Center CEO and Florida House candidate Eric Gray in a statement.
