This story, which originally appeared at OrlandoSentinel.com, is part of a collaborative initiative of independent local news outlets working toward a more informed and engaged Central Florida.
A few months ago, Alan Levi went to a public meeting about a proposed homeless shelter in his SoDo neighborhood—the area south of downtown Orlando.
He left angry—with the comments he heard, the actions he saw and the injustices he felt. Even worse, he left disappointed—with himself.
“The saddest part was I did not speak up at the meeting,” he said. “I deeply regretted that.”
So he decided to write a play. It will debut this week at the Breakthrough Theatre in Winter Park.
The proposed homeless shelter on Kaley Street made headlines this spring after city leaders proposed converting a former Orange County Work Release Center, a transitional housing facility for the incarcerated before their release, into a residence for the unhoused.
“What shocked me was a very negative campaign sprang up immediately,” said Levi, pointing to the “fearmongering” he saw on social media. “All this about ‘protecting children.’ Kids don’t even walk by that industrial area ever. The arguments didn’t make sense.”
But it was the meeting in late March, with City Commissioner Patty Sheehan and Lisa Portelli, a senior adviser on homelessness to the mayor, that pushed Levi to put pen to paper.
“I go to a lot of public meetings, and this was the ugliest one I’ve ever seen or heard,” he said. “Nobody was there to listen; they were just there to shout these two women down.”
The Orlando Sentinel reported that nobody who spoke out supported the shelter, even though it was more than a mile away from many of their homes, and characterized the meeting as “tense.”
“I cannot take this level of harassment for a year,” Sheehan later told the Sentinel. “I really wanted this to be a solution and this to be a good thing. I felt it could have if they’d given us a chance.”
For Levi, it was a sobering moment.
“These were people I’ve known 20 years. They were not their best selves,” he said. “I left the meeting disappointed but also with this weird anger.”
Some of those emotions were directed at himself for not daring to speak on behalf of helping the unhoused.
“I was stunned, and I was intimidated,” he said.
Writing a play to express his feelings made a certain amount of sense. In high school, a teacher had encouraged him to become a writer because he showed promise. Levi is politically active as an organizer for the Democratic Party. He has worked in the entertainment industry for years as a location scout for the TV and film industry. And he has produced, written and acted in plays at the annual Orlando Fringe Festival.
He started writing this play by doing research. A lot of research.
“The more I read, the more my heart broke,” he said. “We can’t start fixing the problem until we realize the unhoused are human with the same rights as the rest of us.”
Levi’s play, titled “unhoused/homefree,” starts with a simple premise: An unhoused person sits on a park bench reading a book. The play then presents three different scenarios about how neighborhood residents could react to the situation.
“Some of it is dark comedy, but some is lighthearted,” Levi said. “I tried not to be preachy, but it’s hard to avoid. I have a lot to say in the show.”
“I love plays based on real events,” said Breakthrough owner Wade Hair, of why he selected “unhoused/homefree” for his festival. “And this play shows the best and the worst of humanity.”
Levi hopes that viewers will be entertained but also leave with food for thought—and maybe even hear a call to action.
“Really, I am trying to make amends for not speaking up at that meeting,” he said, “and for not doing enough to help.”
