For the past few months, Scott Worthington has been homeless. As he battles health issues related to COPD, Rescue Outreach Mission is the third shelter he’s stayed at to get back on track.

Finally, Worthington is moving into an apartment in downtown Sanford. He’s excited to start the new chapter, to be close to the St. John’s River and to have roommates he can help as he works to help himself.

“Rescue Outreach Mission is the best because everyone was so nice to me here,” he says. “The managers were very good to me and all the other people there, well, they treat you nicely too. It’s not like that at other places.”

Of course, being at Rescue Outreach Mission three weeks after his 74th birthday is not where he thought he would end up.

Worthington moved to Orlando in 1985 with his father and stepfather. At the time, the Hilton Orlando Altamonte Springs was opening. It was quite an exciting time for Seminole County as three high-end hotels opened their doors the same year and they were the first in the north Orlando area.

Worthington started working on the project and was hired by the general manager to be part of the opening team. For the next 33 years, Worthington worked on the banquet setup team at the hotel.

“It was a really good job, and everyone liked me too,” he says. “People would come up to my bosses and ask, ‘Is Scotty still here because we’re not coming if Scotty’s not there!’”

 It was there he met the love of his life, Cindy Bradford. She worked in housekeeping at the Hilton and other locations. After a painful first marriage, Worthington was scared to remarried and the two dated for thirty years. Eventually, Worthington decided it was time.

Shortly after the wedding at the Seminole County Courthouse, the management of the hotel gave the two a belated honeymoon – a trip to Naples. They knew the couple couldn’t afford one. The two had been living in hotels for a couple of years without a permanent home.

However, Cindy didn’t make it.

A diabetic, she had a massive heart attack on the trip and died, the start of Worthington’s push toward his current experience with homelessness.

In 2018, when he was approaching 70, it became more and more difficult to work due to his health issues. While he was already semi-retired, he wanted to continue working but wasn’t physically able to.

“I wish I was still there,” he says.

At the time, he had continued living with Cindy’s mother, who also had health issues. He was her caretaker while taking care of himself, but in 2022, she also passed away. Cindy’s sister, who received the house in the will, let him stay, but he started paying rent.

Too often, criminals prey on our senior citizens and Worthington was a victim, losing all of his money to a scammer. Without the ability to pay rent, Worthington was asked to leave the house he called home.

Worthington knows he was fortunate to have a place to call home for so long but understood his sister-in-law’s position.

Currently, many seniors in a similar situation can’t afford rent increases and other issues as housing costs skyrocket in Central Florida. It’s an issue that will become more prevalent as long-term low-wage employees retire from service jobs.

“We’re seeing far too many people like Scott who worked their entire lives at great jobs, only to find themselves without a home because rent increases are outpacing their social security,” says Chris Ham, executive director, Rescue Outreach Mission. “It’s heartbreaking because we should be supporting these individuals and couples who cannot survive without assistance.”

Worthington was able to revert to a prior experience to try and end his situation as quickly as possible.

“When we were homeless 10 years ago, living in hotels, I got to know where all the shelters in the area were,” Worthington says.

He stayed at two in another county, and then spent a week in the hospital with pneumonia. Once discharged, he decided to come back to Altamonte Springs to stay at a hotel in that area, the area where he spent so much time during his life. He didn’t feel good and checked into AdventHealth in Altamonte.

“It’s very hard to answer questions when you are homeless,” he says. “They would ask me where my house was, and I would have to say I’m homeless and staying at shelters.”

AdventHealth is a close partner of Rescue Outreach Mission and was able to help get Worthington to Rescue Outreach Mission after he was given a clean bill of health.

That was on June 8. On July 3, he left the shelter to stay in his new apartment. He’s looking forward to just being able to watch the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Eagles play. A sports fan from Williamsport, Penn., he was very excited when a Lake Mary Little League team was in competition for the Little League World Series.

“I’m going to downtown Sanford, about a block and a half from Lake Monroe and there’s a lot of activity,” he says. “There are two other gentlemen renting rooms in the apartment too. They are younger than me and will be working during the days while I’m there, so I get to be active by helping them.”

While he certainly doesn’t want to be homeless, he does appreciate Rescue Outreach Mission saying: “I’ve been homeless for about two and a half months and Rescue Outreach Mission has been the best.”

< back