- May 13, 2025
Editor's note: This story was updated to include information surrounding the lawsuit filed by two First Step Shelter employees, including that a previous investigation found their whistleblower complaints to be unsubstantiated.
First Step Shelter representatives came before the Ormond Beach City Commission on Tuesday asking to continue their partnership, worried that the city was on the cusp of pulling its support for the homeless shelter.
City officials side-eyed each other on the dais. They'd never discussed pulling funding from the shelter, they said.
"I will say that there is strong evidence that our board appointee has misspoke on my position regarding the First Step Shelter," Commissioner Travis Sargent said. "I support the First Step Shelter. I think they do an amazing job. Yes, we may not utilize it like we could, but look at our neighboring municipalities and how they're utilizing it, and those are less people coming into our communities."
Ormond Beach's annual contribution to First Step Shelter is $82,000. The controversy surrounding this funding came after the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported in mid-April that Mayor Jason Leslie, the commission's appointee to the First Step Shelter Board, said the City Commission had expressed doubts about the shelter. This was said during a board meeting to approve the three-year contract for the shelter's executive director, Victoria Fahlberg.
First Step Shelter has recently been surrounded by conflicts of its own since two former employees filed a lawsuit last December against the shelter and the city of Daytona Beach, alleging they were fired after they provided Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, who serves as the president of the board, and the shelter's board of directors with a whistleblower letter. The letter outlined complaints of management engaging in fraud, fiduciary malfeasance, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, as well as law and safety violations.
A previous investigation into the whistleblower complaint found the allegations were unsubstantiated. The lawsuit is ongoing. Though the lawsuit states the employees held director roles, one was a fundraiser and the other a housing coordinator, both of whom had no supervisory responsibilities.
Since those allegations came to light, the Ormond Beach City Commission has only briefly discussed First Step Shelter on two occasions. On April 1, when Leslie came under fire for touring Barracks of Hope and allegedly promising city funding (which he has vehemently denied), and on Feb. 18, when Sargent asked Leslie for his thoughts on the shelter, since he was the city's representative on the board.
At the time, the Volusia County Council had recently approved continuing to fund the shelter — though part of the vote included reducing the county's contribution in future years.
"As our representative on the board, I would like to know what your thoughts are on regarding the city to continue funding this," Sargent said at the Feb. 18 meeting during his closing comments. "Is the city making good use of this facility, and also, if we're not using, how can we better use this facility?"
Leslie responded that they had only had one board meeting at the time, with one meeting needing to be canceled because it wasn't properly noticed. He said he had ridden along with a police officer to get familiar with the amount of interest from people that want to participate in the First Step Shelter program.
"There's a lot of concerns about that," Leslie said at the Feb. 18 meeting. "A lot of concerns about the direction the shelter is going with some of the things you read about in the news, and at this time, I probably would say that I'm not prepared yet to make any suggestions."
At the meeting on Tuesday, May 6, Ponce Inlet Town Councilman Bill Milano, who serves as the shelter board's treasurer, touted the shelter's success, explaining that over 900 people have been placed in housing since the shelter's opening five years ago. He was speaking before the commission, he said, because of Leslie's comments.
"It is my hope that when you begin the budget process as a council that you will consider staying as a partner with us," Milano said.
Fahlberg also addressed the commission, inviting them to call her if they ever had any questions regarding the shelter. She cited a 2014 study that found a homeless individual costs government $41,192 in today's dollars for inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room fees, incarceration and other related services.
"Although most of these costs are not directly impacted by Ormond Beach, your participation with us makes our entire county a better place to live," she said.
Sargent wanted to address the issue after the public comment period, but Leslie said he could do so in his closing comments. He did — criticizing Leslie's remarks in the News-Journal and asking the city to send the shelter board a letter of support prior to its meeting on Monday.
The commission agreed, with Commissioner Kristin Deaton echoing concerns of having been spoken for.
"I don't think we can be proactive about our transient issue if we are shutting down doors with the funding for First Step Shelter," she said, adding that commissioners shouldn't be discussing this in meetings when it is something they will need to vote on in the future.
During his closing comments, Leslie said he wasn't going to get into the topic too much that evening.
"I think I said what I had to say," he said. "That was in the newspaper. I am focused on just trying to work on transient issues like everyone else I think that's sitting on the dais."
Leslie said he didn't want to engage in "finger-pointing" and that they all have the same goal: that First Step Shelter is a successful program.
