After an employee was accosted, Volusia County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath temporarily closed his Daytona Beach, Fla., office until the county and city can work out a way to relocate the homeless camp that has formed outside the building.
Nearly 100 homeless people camp daily outside the Volusia County Administration Center, and one of Gilreath’s employees filed a police report alleging that she was bumped into by one of those individuals with his shoulder and ran away. Gilreath also said a co-worker witnessed the incident.
“We had a very close call,” Gilreath told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “There was physical contact, and it wasn’t unintentional.”
Gilreath, though, decided to revise his decision after the Volusia County Council and the Daytona Beach City Commission began actively working on a solution to solve the downtown homeless problem. Gilreath brought back 25 or so employees to the appraisal office building this week.
“The county and city are now talking,” Gilreath said. “I would assume the building is safer now than it was.”
Lynn Byrne, the board president of the Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors, said the timing of the office closing would be bad for those Daytona-area homeowners who have until March 1 to file for their homestead exemptions.
County Manager Jim Dinneen confirmed that added security outside the office building probably contributed to Gilreath’s decision to bring his staff back.
“It was his choice,” Dinneen said. “He’s welcome back.”