BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
STARKE—A local nonprofit is assisting 15 of the 20 families displaced by a Sunday, January 14 fire at a Starke apartment complex. Financial support from the Red Cross helped get the victims through the first week, and now the impacted families need more assistance to continue recovering from the fire that left them homeless.
JoAnna Weldon, CEO and founder of Answers Health and Resource Facility said her organization is helping many of the victims and that the situation is still fluid.
“We’ve met with each individual family,” she said. “We got clothing sizes from them and what other financial means they have access to. We put a list out on Facebook about the specific items the families need.”
Weldon added that volunteers are now processing donated items, and the families will return to Answers next week for assistance.
Weldon said her organization was not set up to help 20 families in a sudden emergency. However, she said other groups are equally ill-equipped to handle the crisis.
She said the county’s emergency management department is set up to handle large-scale emergencies like a hurricane, and the Red Cross is equipped to help single families who lost everything in a fire, but neither group has the resources lined up to assist 20 families get their lives back together after a residential fire.
Weldon added that the Red Cross did provide each family with a cash stipend, which allowed the victims to get hotel rooms for a week. She said those funds will run out on Sunday, January 21.
She added that other groups have assisted Answers with helping the families.
In an email to supporters, she thanked First Baptist Church of Starke, the American Red Cross, Kingsley Lake Baptist Church, the Bradford Food Pantry, the Madison Street Baptist Church Clothes Closet, Cross Church, Rags to Riches Thrift Store, and LifeSpring Church for joining the recovery effort.
“We are looking for temporary, emergency housing,” Weldon said. “That would buy some time.”
She added that she is working with government officials to obtain FEMA funds for the victims. However, if that aid ever materializes, getting the funds to the victims will take some time.
Answers is continuing assistance to the victims and has started a special fundraising campaign to continue the support.
People can help in the effort by going to the Answers website: https://findanswersnow.org, clicking the “Giving” tab in the upper right corner, clicking “Custom” under Make a donation, and writing Starke Hotel Fire in the field: “Area of Greatest Need.”
