The home-like center offers a comfortable, nonclinical space for people to get support from professionals with lived experience.
Eva's Casita, a peer respite center run by the local nonprofit Peer Support Space, officially opened its doors two months ago — the first of its kind in Central Florida, and the first and only in the nation designed and led by LGBTQ+ mental-health advocates. Located in a quiet residential neighborhood just south of downtown Orlando, the new center — staffed with a peer support specialist 24/7 — looks like a normal home on the outside, and largely on the inside as well, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two community rooms, plus a kitchen and a sunroom...