WEST PALM BEACH — In spite of having been infected with COVID-19 sometime within the past few weeks, Palm Beach County District 6 Commissioner Melissa McKinlay still “virtually” attended a county board meeting and participated in a Glades-oriented presentation about affordable housing last week.

On Thursday, Oct. 29, she was moved up to speak first on the agenda of a public forum about affordable and workforce housing in the Glades region, rather than toward the end. But she was more than ready to list the accomplishments, because there have been several very recently.

First the commissioner, in a steady, determined voice, explained her situation after she was introduced by Palm Beach State College President Ava Parker, whose institution hosted the online forum.

“It’s so fun to be on the phone today with so many people that I admire, yourself included,” McKinlay started, complimenting Parker and her staff. “So many people are responsible for this drive that we’ve seen in terms of housing in the Glades, and I’m just honored to be the first one to speak today.

“I want to apologize if at times I seem a bit discombobulated. I am home right now, struggling through some side effects from the COVID virus. Please continue to wear your masks! This stuff is real. It’s not a fun virus. It’s unfortunate, but it is making me pretty lightheaded. So thank you so much for the adjustment to the programming today to take that into consideration.”

Commissioner McKinlay proceeded to detail how much has been happening on the front of creating affordable, “workforce” and “farmworker” housing for the Glades region, whose homelessness problem surely is more complicated than the problem(s) that prompted action for the Atlantic coastal communities. Among them was the well-known “occupation” of John Prince Park in Lake Worth by homeless encampments that since have been swept away by county actions.

She talked about the project to convert the former Everglades Memorial Hospital site in Pahokee to farmworker housing, noting the county received more than $3 million from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to finance the needed demolitions and new construction.

“I really just want to ... talk about what we’ve done with some of our federal CARES Act dollars. The Glades area has long wanted a homeless resource center … What with funding cuts and all sorts of things happening at the state level, it’s been a bit of a struggle. As you know, Palm Beach County approved a second homeless resource center near your (PBSC) campus in Lake Worth. We were very happy to come across … the old Panda Housing Program in Belle Glade.”

She credited “the great leadership of Wendy Tippett and James Green and their team,” from the Palm Beach County Department Community Services – Human and Veteran Services and the county Department of Housing and Economic Sustainability, respectively, for making that happen.

“We’re in the process right now of remodeling that (Panda), and it will open up by the end of the year, and that will be the county’s third homeless resource center — dedicated entirely to those folks who need assistance in the Glades area. In addition to that, we will be opening up — also in the process of doing the renovation — a complex in Pahokee which will provide 43 housing units there. They are one-bedroom apartments, and the immediate need right now will be to provide respite housing, I like to call it, for families that might be dealing with COVID. (That is when) somebody’s been exposed and they can’t stay in their home.

“Rather than putting them on a bus and bringing them in to the coastal communities, we’ll be able to have a safe spot for someone to either heal from this virus or to remain in quarantine to protect their families until they have the all-clear. In addition to that, those units will also be used for transitional housing,” McKinlay continued.

“I believe they’ll be able to stay in those units for up to two years while we locate permanent housing situations for these families. Combined, those two projects represent about a $6 million investment in the Glades communities to move people off the street or out of an unsafe living condition into something temporary while we transition them to permanent housing.

“And, it is a key to transitioning anybody into permanent housing, to make sure that they have the education and the job skills to be able to sustain housing in the long term, and we couldn’t do that without the partnership of Palm Beach State College and the great programs that you offer to our communities in the Glades, as well as other parts of Palm Beach County.

“So thank you so much for giving me a few minutes to do an introduction and I look forward to the questions later,” she finished.

Follow lakeokeechobeenews.com and southcentralfloridalife.com for other reports on the topic of affordable housing in the Glades region of Palm Beach County.