DAYTONA BEACH -- The dream came easily.
Find 100 homeless veterans squatting in vacant buildings and sleeping in hidden thickets of woods, and put them in a new complex where they can have their own apartments upstairs and an array of services that will help put their lives back together downstairs.
The reality -- turning vacant property on the city's west side into the place where hope can be rekindled for the veterans -- is proving tougher.
State Rep. Dwayne Taylor, Daytona Beach Housing Authority Executive Director Anthony Woods and other key players in the project still need to find $30 million for construction, convince the federal government to waive a rule barring felons from receiving housing assistance, get a zoning change for the site they have in mind and win over city government leaders who could make or break the plan.
Some top city officials are already cool on the idea, but Taylor is undaunted.
"I'm ready to fight the city for vets on this," said Taylor, a longtime Daytona Beach resident. "I'm willing to stand up for my vets. It's just time. We have too many homeless veterans."
By the end of the month, Taylor hopes to sit down with the mayor, city manager and city staff to explain his idea. Taylor, a former Daytona Beach city commissioner, would like to see the new facility open by next fall.
If all the pieces come together, the City Commission will make the final decision. That's the body of leaders who not long ago imposed a ban on some new social services in the city's redevelopment areas.
And it's the same elected officials who two months ago passed a measure that's aimed at reversing the trend of social service agencies clustering in Daytona Beach and more evenly spreading them throughout Volusia and Flagler counties.
"Need will be looked at on a two-county basis," said City Planner Rich Walton. "We'd start with United Way information on what's in the city already. ... They'll have to produce statistics to show need."
City rules won't close the door on the project, Walton said, but the group could be in for a challenge.
The group's top choice for a site is at the southwest corner of the intersection of Mason Avenue and Bill France Boulevard. The 26-acre site, which the Housing Authority owns, is currently zoned for commercial uses.
Walton said the property would probably have to be rezoned to a semi-public use for what the project members have in mind.
The immediate area has more commercial and industrial zoning, and the city has targeted that pocket of Daytona Beach for economic development. There are apartment complexes nearby, and a concentration of single-family homes is located not too far to the east.
Taylor especially likes the spot, which is a good distance from the city's community redevelopment areas, because it's between a veterans' nursing home and a veterans' clinic. It's also near Votran bus lines.
"It's an ideal opportunity to provide this," said Woods, who began as the Housing Authority's executive director in March, after the property had been purchased. "The need is great in our area. It would be a credit to the city and our state."
The corner they want is located in the zone of City Commissioner Rob Gilliland.
"I'm not sure that's the right location," Gilliland said. "There's certainly a need in the community. ... Any project that will help veterans I encourage. Maybe we can work with them."
Gilliland said it sounds like a good program, but he needs to hear a lot more details before he can begin to say if he supports it or not.
Some top city staff members said they first heard about the idea several months ago, and they already told the key members of the project it didn't look promising.
"Staff has been telling them that piece of property is not appropriate," Walton said.
The Housing Authority has other land it could use, but the agency could run into similar resistance because of the city government's push the past few years to thin its concentration of social service agencies, places where the poor and homeless get help with everything from food to clothing to job hunting.
Taylor and Woods say the facility they envision will not be a social service agency. They say there won't be lines of people outside waiting for free meals. They say it won't be a temporary shelter.
"It's transitional housing," Taylor said. "We'll make this a first-class facility. We'll be responsible."
It would be the home of 100 veterans, and office space where they and other local veterans can get mental health counseling, addiction help, physical therapy and guidance on receiving benefits, they explain.
"It sure seems like a social service," Walton said.
Those who want to pare social services in Daytona Beach should consider the new facility would "pull people out of food lines and put a roof over their heads," Woods said.
They want to use a federal program for housing assistance for veterans to cover rent and utilities. Taylor is preparing a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he's contemplating a trip to Washington, D.C., to pursue that federal help.
They're also trying to tap a $300 million fund under the state attorney general's control for their $30 million construction bill, and they submitted their request three weeks ago. The $300 million came from a national mortgage settlement, said John Lucas, press secretary for state Attorney General Pam Bondi.
"The settlement agreement contemplates that Florida's share of the settlement will be used both for homeowner relief and assistance, and to compensate costs incurred by the state in connection with the housing crisis," Lucas said.
If the group can't get the $30 million from Bondi's office, Taylor is confident they'll find it elsewhere.
Bondi will be working in concert with the state Legislature, but there is no timeline yet for when money will be allocated, Lucas said.
Jim Brodie, the director of legislative and cabinet affairs for the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs in Tallahassee, said "the idea has merit."
"We are very appreciative of what Dwayne Taylor and others are seeking to do," said Brodie, who sat in on a meeting of Daytona leaders discussing the project.
But he said a similar idea for a veterans' one-stop living and assistance facility in south Florida hasn't been successful, at least not yet.
Taylor said people are already emailing him with offers to help. With so many veterans' services scattered around Daytona Beach and an hour's drive away in Orlando, it makes sense to concentrate them here, he said.
"I just care about helping veterans," Taylor said.
"I'm sure if there are any details that need to be worked out they can be discussed," Woods said. "I think the need speaks for itself."
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