More people are living in hotels and in cars than ever before, according to an Osceola County homeless task force. Now, county commissioners think they might have a solution that involves buying properties and converting them to affordable housing.

“Hurry up with this housing. I’m not trying to pressure them or anything, but there are kids out there,” one hotel resident, Alicia Lopez, said.

Pregnant and frustrated, Alicia Lopez is now dealing with the idea of raising her daughter in one of the many hotels or motels in Kissimmee.

“If we could find affordable housing where we don’t have to worry about paying every week or being low on rent or what-not. That would be nice,” Lopez said.

Lopez said for two years she and her boyfriend have struggled to get by. They haven’t had the opportunity to save money because rent at the hotels soak up their paychecks, charging around $1,000 a month.

It’s because of the high rate and low affordability that the homelessness task force in Osceola County told the county commission this week that finding affordable housing needs to be their first priority.

“To be able to put people into stable housing will solve our issues. Or at least it will give a good basis for people when they do get into distress to be able to get out of distress,” Commissioner Michael Harford said.

Although there is no exact count, the county believes there are about 1,600 homeless families living there. The school district estimates they have around 4,000 homeless students.

“We need to keep this from becoming generational,” Harford said. He explained they want to make sure the motel/hotel dependency doesn’t extend to current hotel residents' children.

For Lopez she just hopes something happens soon before her child remembers growing up in a hotel.

Affordable housing is just one of the ways the Osceola homelessness task force hopes to help these families. They said over the next six months they will propose more things the county can improve on.

For now we were told the county will have a better idea of how much affordable housing they have and need by late June.