FAMILIES MOVE INTO SAMARITAN INN

LEESBURG -- Homeless no longer, three families now call the Samaritan Inn home. After months of intense work, including more than 4,500 volunteer hours, the former Big Bass Motel is now beginning to meet the needs of families as they work to get back on their feet.

Shawna Hazlett, who was forced to sleep in the woods with daughters Alivia, 4, and Kira, 3, were the first to be welcomed to inn. An Army veteran, she had come to Florida from Ohio with big plans for the future, when she found herself suddenly stranded without a car or a place to stay.

She found herself overwhelmed with the chance to provide a good, clean, safe place for her family. “I feel lucky and blessed,” she said in an interview with the Daily Commercial when she moved in on June 30, “but there’s a part of me that feels a little bit guilty because there are people out there that don’t have this,” she said. Since she moved in, she has been joined by another mom, but she has three children, 13, 12 and 3 years old. Because she has a low-paying job, she found herself being forced to live in a boarding house that “reeks of alcohol and weed,” she said. The third family consists of a widower and his two children, a boy, 9, and a girl, 5. Chester Wood, mission director, says the inn is not just a place to stay for awhile and move on.

The program is designed to help families figure out how they got here and how they can provide a better future for their children, through job training and other skills. “We will provide for all their needs,” he said, including their spiritual needs. The first stage of the project will provide a home for nine families. Eventually, the north wing of the old motel will also be completely renovated. Once all the work is completed, it will house 20 families.