St. Matthew’s House is closing its homeless shelter in Immokalee on June 30 yet hopes another entity would acquire it and keep it open.
A potential “partner organization” that officials at St. Matthew’s House had been working with relayed May 21 that it could not move forward with acquiring Friendship House, Ben Bridges, president and chief executive officer of St. Matthew’s House, said in an email.
Located at 602 W. Main St., Friendship House is the only licensed homeless shelter in Immokalee for the general public.
Immokalee leaders opened Friendship House in 1987 to address the increase in the homeless population in the impoverished farmworking migrant community in eastern Collier.
St. Matthew’s House is the dominant homeless and recovery nonprofit in Collier County for the past 37 years. It acquired Friendship House in 2008. The shelter has 30 beds and three family rooms.
Immokalee is a bedrock of the $388 million in Collier’s market value of produce, according to a 2022 report by the Florida Department Agriculture and Consumer Services that is updated every five years.
Bridges said Friendship House’s occupancy rate over the last year has fluctuated between 60% and 80%.
Up to half of the residents have come from the greater Naples area while waiting for a bed to open up at the main campus at the 150-bed Campbell Lodge in East Naples where they can find employment.
Some background
Bridges said in an initial email May 21 that St. Matthew’s House made the decision to cease operating Friendship House effective June 30.
He added the organization was in talks with another organization to take it over but no final agreement had been reached.
“This follows a thoughtful and prayerful evaluation of how we can best steward our resources to achieve the greatest impact across Southwest Florida,” he said.
“As the needs of the Immokalee community change, we are seeking the highest and best use of the facility as well as the most effective agency to operate,” he said. “As such, we’re working toward transitioning the shelter to a partner organization to ensure continuity of care in the Immokalee community.”
But an update email later on May 21 said the organization considering acquiring Friendship just informed Bridges it could not move forward due its own programs and investments.
“While the initial opportunity did not come to fruition, we remain open to any other organizations that may be interested in a transition,” Bridges said. “While we would prefer an outright sale of the property, we would entertain options for partnering, including possibly leasing to another agency.”
If another entity does not come forward, the plan remains to close Friendship House on June 30.
The shelter has seven employees. Nobody has been let go and the goal is to find them other jobs within the organization or help them secure jobs elsewhere, he said.
Many of the 135 employees throughout St. Matthew’s House’s numerous entities that include thrift stores, a catering company and more, have completed its homeless and addiction recovery program.
Other organizations are alarmed
The potential closure of Friendship House will be a setback for the challenge of getting the homeless in Collier into housing and back on their feet, others say.
“The SWFL Regional Coalition to End Homelessness recognizes the significant impact the closure of the St. Matthew’s House Friendship House Shelter in Immokalee will have on individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Collier County,” Michael Overway, chief executive officer of the coalition, said in a statement.
Despite Collier’s image of a haven for retirees and the wealthy, homelessness exists and the recent results of the annual homeless count by the coalition shows 433 were homeless during a two-day “point in time” homeless count in late January.
Some of it is tied to chronic substance abuse, mental illness, job loss and domestic violence.
Collier is an expensive place to live with rental units being sold for high land values and redevelopment, or rental prices remaining above other locales as a result of dwindling stock.
“Friendship House has served as an important resource for some of our community’s most vulnerable residents, and we are deeply concerned about the immediate disruption this closure may cause for those who rely on emergency shelter and supportive services,” Overway said.
Overway said the coalition remains hopeful that another entity will take it over and supports “collaborative efforts that ensure continuity of care and maintain access to safe shelter, housing assistance, and supportive services for those in need.”
Why close Friendship House?
Bridges said if another entity does not take over Friendship, the residents there will need to be relocated and continue to get services.
“We are working closely with each resident to ensure they have appropriate next steps and access to continued support within St. Matthew’s House or with partner agencies,” Bridges said.
The decision to close it or sell the Immokalee shelter is part of a broader strategic effort to align programs and resources more closely with where St. Matthew’s House sees as having the greatest measurable outcomes, he said.
According to financial reports, St. Matthew’s House had total operating revenue in fiscal year 2025 of $51.6 million and total operating expenses of $48.6 million.
On the revenue side, its “social enterprise” programs for job training, such as thrift stores, restaurant and catering business, brought in $20.8 million.
Grants and contributions came to $18.1 million and in-kind contributions came to $11.6 million. Lastly events brought in $1.1 million, the 2025 annual report said.
Expenses tied to running shelters with roughly 300 beds in total, addiction recovery programs and social enterprise operations came to $46.6 million, the report said.
Fundraising brought in $3.4 million and expenses for management and administration came to $3.5 million, data shows.
In terms of impact in 2025, St. Matthew’s House moved 741 people from homelessness to housing and another 1,253 people completed the addiction recovery program.
In addition, St. Matthew’s House distributed 2.1 million meals and grew 21,000 pounds of produce across its properties.
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Liz Freeman is a health care reporter. Reach her by emailing lfreeman@naplesnews.com
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Immokalee’s homeless shelter faces closure June 30. Where to go?
Reporting by Liz Freeman, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
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