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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cThis is what all the rooms look like,\u201d Mockabee said, while giving a tour of a new room at Salvation Army\u2019s facility in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s been with the Salvation Army in Polk County for a few years now and said he has seen the progress on its 50-plus acres in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the last eight years, the facility has had 20 shelters for families experiencing things like homelessness or domestic violence. Now, as of Oct. 20, that\u2019s doubled with the addition of the new rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we’re doing is it offering a safe place for families to come,\u201d Mockabee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fully furnished rooms will have bedding and restrooms for families to spend up to 90 days in so they can have time to get back on their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mockabee said it’s necessary after the organization saw what was happening in the wake of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith COVID, there was a moratorium on evictions, but once that was raised, we kind of just saw this big tsunami of need coming are coming our way,\u201d Mockabee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that at the facility’s previous capacity, the Salvation Army would have to turn away about a dozen families each night. When the new spots open, he said they anticipated being completely full on the first night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere’s a lot of success that we have had in this program,\u201d Mockabee said. \u201cAnd that’s what we’re trying to show here, is that we’re not trying to invent the wheel, we’re just really increasing what we already know works in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s something that means a lot to Mockabee \u2014 he\u2019s a fifth-generation officer with the Salvation Army and now has a family of his own. He said that if the shoe were on the other foot, he would hope that there would be places like the Salvation Army for his family to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s a large piece of property,\u201d Mockabee said. \u201cBut we also know that part of having been blessed with this much property that we can expand on is the fact that we can expand on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only with new shelters, but with triplex apartments where families can spend a longer time, and in brand new Homes of Hope that, once fully furnished, will be available to families for a low rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes all families need is just a place to stay,\u201d Mockabee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mockabee said the new portion of the shelter will be open to new families on Oct. 30. He said the Homes of Hope will be available for families as soon as they\u2019re able set up furniture, which has been delayed because of ongoing supply chain issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Salvation Army Capt. Jeremy Mockabee still has a tough time believing the hard work is finally coming to fruition. \u201cThis is what all the rooms look like,\u201d Mockabee said, while… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37682,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37680\/revisions\/37682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}