The Orlando Sentinel's Appalling Lack Of Journalistic Integrity

Since Orlando Mayor, Buddy Dyer, dropped his plan to convert the Orange County Work Release building into an Open Access Low Barrier Homeless Shelter, The Orlando Sentinel has published over a dozen opinion and letters to the editor from their Editorial Board and various members of the public that spread misinformation, bias, divisiveness, and defamatory statements. Here is a short list of rhetoric published “selfishness, short-sightedness and deception…a scare campaign…bombarded with a slickly produced campaign …a drumbeat suggestion that homeless people are a subhuman plague…a parade of horribles, most of which are either unsubstantiated or downright false… virulent hints.. statistics that were… manipulated.”

As an 07 UF journalism grad and Poynter Fellow who has worked at three newspapers, The Bay City Times, The Grand Rapids Press and The Columbus Dispatch, living in SoDo since 2011, I am appalled by the The Orlando Sentinel's one-sided defamatory coverage of the Kaley Shelter story. StopSoDoShelter.com was created after a month researching and fact checking every single line on the website. All the information is accurate and shared in good faith to inform our community about what an open-access low-barrier shelter would mean to our area and how our elected officials tried to pass it without our community knowing the facts.

The Sentinel has ignored my opinion submission and those of a handful of other StopSoDoShelter.com supporters, but a Sentinel editor did respond to my wife's submission. It's important to note that the Sentinel required 3 rounds of revisions and required us to share proof for every statement we made, yet fact checking went out the window in the op-eds published in support of the Kaley shelter.

Below is one of my wife's first op-ed submissions and the original revisions requested by the Sentinel Editor. By CHELSEA CANTILLI

PUBLISHED: March 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM EDT

SoDo Unites for Safety

StopSODOShelter.com was started by my husband in January of this year, after we and other neighbors attended a City Council meeting where the board and mayor approved moving forward with the Kaley shelter despite it not being on the meeting’s agenda. In a few short months we grew to over 1500 local members sporting over 800 yard signs.

An information campaign based on facts

Sunday’s editorial calls our website “unsubstantiated and downright false,” but without offering evidence to refute our research. I believe the hyperbole is false and defamatory (these are legal terms, therefore must be offered as your opinion), accusing taxpayers of “a drumbeat suggestion that homeless people are a subhuman plague,” “virulent hints…statistics that were manipulated.” Then, with zero evidence or investigation, promoted a phony claim that Ms. Sheehan faced “harassment.” The paper should’ve investigated, then rejected, this assertion. victim drama. (You can't prove this didn't happen; therefore you can't call it phony) Ms. Sheehan is an elected official and subject to the petitions of her constituents which were factual. Watch the Wadeview meeting video for yourself.

You claim “the state has legislated myriad penalties” including “a command to incarcerate people.” This is intentionally deceptive to your readers. (This paragraph has nothing to do with your group and is also inaccurate -- it needs to be struck)

While the opinion page is welcome to its opinions, misstating a fact deserves a correction. At no point did we, or any of the hundreds of people in our movement, call homeless people “subhuman,” those are the words of the editorial board (we did not accuse the site of using the word "subhuman;" that was a characterization, our opinion that the campaign -- especially on social media -- treated the homeless as lesser people. We stand by that.)  We used research: 38% of homeless in Florida are alcohol dependent and 28% misuse other drugs (Adam Seigel of Olympic Behavioral Health.) We pointed out recent murders, such as our neighbor in Caribbean Ct who was beaten to death by a felon living in a shed, and our neighbor in Delaney who was stabbed to death by a homeless man after he left ORMC against medical advice.

Why we opposed

The terms of the interlocal agreement required community engagement and consensus. The Mayor and Ms. Sheehan conceded there was no consensus. “Consensus” mandates the voices of taxpayers be heard and respected. Second, the proponents lacked transparency and concealed didn't acknowledge critical facts (this is not provable; they didn't state all the facts on either side. See if you're OK with the suggested change). Rather than engage neighbors prior to the vote, they pushed through their agenda with zero respect for legitimate concerns of families and children. Worse, the interlocal vote took place with no feasibility study, no budget, no community engagement–just a blank check for a behind closed doors deal.

At no point did we, or any of the hundreds of people in our movement, call or imply homeless people “subhuman,” those are the words of the editorial board. We cited all the facts and research we used on our site like 38% of homeless in Florida are alcohol dependent and 28% misuse other drugs (Adam Seigel of Olympic Behavioral Health.) We pointed out recent murders, such as our neighbor in Caribbean Ct who was beaten to death by a felon living in a shed, and our neighbor in Delaney who was stabbed to death by a homeless man after he left ORMC against medical advice.

About ORMC, which serves all of us–no one does more to materially help the poor of Downtown than our hospital. I suggest asking ORMC “who drops off the majority of homeless people to their ER” and then follow up with, “do those organizations accept back those same homeless people once they are in stable condition?”

Yet another easily verifiable fact is “raw sewage running in the streets.” We documented this and reported it to City Council on Feb 10th. Octavian witnessed the sewage flowing out of a 4” clean out pipe 2 feet from the Coalition for the Homeless building on Terry Ave, flowing across sidewalks and into the street, where it dried in the sun and then people laid and slept on those sidewalks. When no one responded to our complaints, seven days after first seeing the issue, we reported to the DEP on February 11 (incident no. 2025-1301), and they found a violation. Read our story in detail here. https://www.stopsodoshelter.com/post/raw-sewage-literally (This was not included in your original submittion. Please remove.)

Downtown already has more beds than the rest of Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties combined. On the “homeless services” webpages for surrounding municipalities, some most if not all shelter resources direct clients Downtown. It is not fair for other areas to collect their homeless population, put them in the back of police cruisers, and drop them off here. (Do you have documentation that this has happened? We'd need it if you're to make this accusation) We want our tax dollars to go to our people–our schools, our infrastructure, our roads, our swim lessons, our gifted classes–and yes, our problems. But not to carry the burden of homeless services for the entire tri-county area.

The cancelled Kaley facility would’ve been a low-barrier shelter with no screening for criminals and sex offenders, meaning it would attract people who cannot stay in shelters with stricter rules – often because they’re a danger to women and children (this phrase is not supported by facts. The percentage of people who are true predators is not far off from the general population). In addition, while drugs, alcohol, and weapons wouldn’t be allowed inside the shelter, lockers would be provided to store those items, which could be picked up when clients chose to leave the shelter and go for a walk.

Over 6% of sex offenders are transients (how does this translate -- what percentage of homeless people are sex offenders?). This real concern was swept under the rug. Imagine being a working parent in a small neighborhood, knowing your child has to walk to and from school past men who have a history of felony convictions for abuse of children under age 12?

The Kaley location is close to schools, playgrounds, residential neighborhoods, and a children’s hospital. This is why a large, organized, grass-roots group of locals successfully opposed it. I’m proud of what we accomplished.

What’s next?

We support helping working poor, people like parents with children, or individuals with evictions who need help getting back on their feet. Our issue is with a specific group, the chronic substance abusers, who panhandle and resort to crime to fund their habits. Many in this group refuse shelter beds when offered. A “shelter” dedicated to this population is like a jail that people can walk in and out of. Fact: Commissioner Sheehan herself opposed a proposed shelter close to her own residence because of her concern about crime. Do you have proof of this? We'd need to see it. No similar concern was shown for us and our children.