Clay County homeless disabled vet told to move to Jacksonville

A homeless veteran in Clay County said she has been told to move to Jacksonville to find a place to rest to her head at night.

Theresa McAvoy calls her car, "home home." It's where the disabled veteran spends every night with her emotional support cat, Simon.

“I have lost my whole family. I have no one,” McAvoy said.

For the past two years, McAvoy has been spending nights in Walmart parking lots.

“I’ve traveled to several different Walmart [stores] looking for the safest ones,” McAvoy said.

But on Thursday she woke up to someone outside her car.

“I peeped out the window and he said, "There's no sleeping here. You have to leave right away,'” McAvoy said.

Walmart is cracking down on allowing people to sleep in its parking lots.

McAvoy said she called the Clay County Sheriff's Office to see where she would be allowed to park and sleep.

"They say, 'I'm sorry, but we don't have any homeless shelters in Clay County, so you'll need to go to Jacksonville,'" McAvoy said.

She said the shelters in Jacksonville are nearly full.

“There were no beds available," McAvoy said. "There's a month-long waiting list to get in."

And she would have to part ways with Simon.

“They’re literally your family if you're not married and don’t have children," McAvoy said. "It’s important to have that emotional support cat and not be separated from him."

The Clay County Sheriff's Office said there aren’t any legal overnight parking areas, and the agency has has received several complaints about people sleeping in their cars at Walmart.

Cox Media Group