Access to a shower shouldn’t be a luxury. But for some Lake County residents, it is.
After Kelly Veilleux, a Fruitland Park resident, noticed a sobering trend among the homeless population in Lake County, she decided to find a way to fill the void by helping to bring a mobile shower trailer to the area through SALT Outreach Lake County, an outpost branch of the SALT Outreach nonprofit.
“I was volunteering locally with a couple of different agencies that do feedings and give clothing for the homeless in our area,” Veilleux said. “I saw there was one church in the area doing twice-a-month showers and the Friends of the Homeless did a quarterly outreach providing showers at their church. I quickly started seeing a lot of these folks are only getting a shower twice a month and an additional time once a quarter if they make it over to one of these churches. So, I’m thinking, ‘Man, three showers. I can’t imagine living like that.’”
Veilleux wanted to do something more for the community and started doing research. That’s when someone suggested she look into SALT.
“I had never heard of them before,” she said. “When I found their website and learned what their mission was, I thought this is wonderful. This is what we would like to do here. I reached out to the president Eric Camarillo and after having a conversation with him, it was only within three months we were purchasing a trailer. It all went so quickly.”
SALT Outreach, which stands for Service And Love Together, provides services including showers, laundry, case management work and more for homeless people.
Founded in Orlando, the first SALT Outreach event was held in 2011; it officially became a nonprofit in 2012, and the first mobile shower trailer was purchased in 2018. The organization has since grown to reach people in Lake, Seminole, Hillsborough and Osceola counties.
The SALT Outreach Lake County mobile shower trailer was purchased in the late summer of 2024 and put into service in November 2024.
The Mobile Drop-In Center is accessible every Monday from 9 a.m. to noon, and on the second and fourth Friday of the month from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Benevolence Center at the Christian Care Center, 115 N 13th St., Leesburg. The Fruitland Park location is accessible from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday at New Life Church, 207 S Villa Ave., Fruitland Park.
As of March 30, Veilleux said services are up 20% from last year, with 584 showers provided.
“From our ministry perspective, we’re up 20%. In 2025, we gave 2,185 showers. That also includes giving away thousands of hygiene items,” she said. “Every shower we are providing soap, shampoo, razors, toothbrushes and deodorant. These are all the things that we just take for granted, that we have at our fingertips in our bathrooms. We also make available clean socks and underwear to probably about 80% of the people that use our services.”
The services provided go beyond showers and hygiene supplies.
“At least every other week we have someone doing haircuts with us,” Veilleux said. “We have a case manager and peer support specialist, so if people need help with something like a lost ID or they need food stamps, they can get services from them that day.”
Veilleux said she still feels there’s more to do.
“We are getting ready to add transportation services starting in the middle of April,” she said. “We’ve rented a van and we’re gonna put that on as part of our services so that we can go to some of the outlying areas of the community and bring people to our location.”
To assist those in need, she said SALT Outreach Lake County refers those looking for their next meal to local food pantries that service Lake County, including the Christian Care Center Benevolence Center food bank in Leesburg and the Beyond The Walls Food Pantry in Fruitland Park.
“If they have encountered something that drives them into economic distress they could become homeless,” she said. “It could be something like a health crisis or an unexpected expense to where they can no longer pay the rent and that’s what puts them into a homeless scenario. If they’re fortunate enough to have a car, then at least they’re living out of their car.”
According to the Mid Florida Homeless Coalition Inc., there are at least 678 people in Lake County experiencing homelessness as of February 2026.
Barbara Venditto, executive director of Mid Florida Homeless Coalition, said while the numbers don’t represent the complete picture or the number of homeless people, it does show a clear increase over the years. Data provided by the coalition shows an increase of over 150 homeless households from January 2024 to January 2026.
“The increase is happening daily,” Venditto said. “Sumter County was the fastest-growing location in the nation for 2025. The working class can’t live where they work because they can’t afford it. People are barely making it. If things are that tight, it takes one medical event or one thing that is disruptive enough that you miss a paycheck and never get caught back up.
“SALT Outreach Lake County has helped provide resources to people in a big way,” she said. “No one agency can do everything, but it’s huge because now people can be clean for a job interview or even just stay healthy because they are clean. There are so many benefits from their services that most people don’t even have to think about.”
To learn more about SALT Outreach Lake County, visit serviceandlovetogether.org. For more information about the Mid Florida Homeless Coalition, visit midfloridahomeless.org.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
