Housing near YMCA of Central Florida

04The drive to the association office

Four homes are within about 9 minutes of the association office by road: Fruit Tree Home at about 7 minutes, Amelia’s Arena Retreat at about 8, and Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando at about 9, tied with City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes, also in Washington Shores. Behind those four, the Head Avenue, Meet & Play, Entertainment and Cozy houses each run about 11 minutes, WinterPark Home about 12, Piedmont about 13, Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat about 14, and Wekiwa Home, farthest out in Hiawassee, about 18.

I-4 and SR-408 both reach downtown from every cluster of homes. SR-408 is a tolled expressway, so a SunPass or E-PASS transponder is worth setting up in the first week of a longer assignment; paying by plate works too, but costs more per trip. Parramore and Holden Heights sit close enough in that the interstate is often optional day to day; the trip from the west side or the northwest leans on SR-408 more. All of these are typical road-routing times without traffic, and Orlando's morning and evening rush hours add the most to the longer routes on this list.

05Where the homes sit around the office

The map below places each home in its true compass direction from the office, with distance from the centre standing in for drive time rather than miles. Amelia’s Arena Retreat sits alone in the Downtown Orlando group, on the Parramore side, about 8 minutes out. Fruit Tree Home anchors the South of Downtown group in Holden Heights, about 7 minutes out. West Orlando holds five homes: the Dollins and Sunset Lake houses in Washington Shores at about 9 minutes, Meet. Play. Stay. in Malibu Groves at about 11, Piedmont at about 13, and Wekiwa Home out in Hiawassee at about 18. Northwest Orlando holds the rest: the Head Avenue, Entertainment and Cozy houses around Pine Hills at about 11 minutes, WinterPark Home in Lockhart at about 12, and Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat at about 14.

Two homes in different directions can land on the same drive time, so pair the map with the neighborhood pages before you choose. Parramore and Holden Heights sit closest in; Washington Shores is the stadium side of West Orlando; Pine Hills, Rosemont and Lockhart make up the northwest cluster. A specialist covering more than one family center in a month can use this map to pick a base that keeps the office within easy reach without ruling out the rest of the region.

06A month near the association office

A center director moving in from another state is usually picking a neighborhood at the same time as starting a job. A furnished house near the association office, with a full kitchen from the first night, buys one to three months to see the west side, the northwest suburbs and the downtown edge before signing a year lease anywhere. A partner and kids can make the move at the same time without the cost of a second hotel room, since the whole house is already there; our relocation and long-stay page walks through how that month or two usually goes.

Aquatics, wellness and youth-program specialists often split their first weeks between more than one family center while they get oriented, since the association runs branches across four counties. A house on the downtown edge or the west side keeps every direction within a manageable drive, with a private driveway so a rental car is never left hunting for street parking. National trainers and consultants brought in for a program launch tend to book narrower windows, a few weeks to a couple of months, and want a real kitchen so a training week does not mean eating out every night; our corporate and business housing page covers that pattern in general. Because each of these stays runs on the same written agreement, a training team of two or three can share one house and one bill for the whole trip.

Seasonal camp and program staff hired for the summer session fit the same monthly agreement as the students and interns we house each summer; if a camp season runs long or a contract extends into the fall, we hold the house month by month instead of asking anyone to move mid-assignment. A house with a yard and a full kitchen works well for camp staff, whose days are often outdoors and end with a load of laundry and a real meal to cook.

07The homes closest to the association office

Four of our homes are within about 9 minutes of the association office by road: the 25th Street House, the Amelia House, the Dollins House and the Sunset Lake House, which ties Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando at about 9 minutes and also sits in Washington Shores. A closer look at the 25th Street, Amelia and Dollins houses follows.

South of Downtown

Holden Heights

Fruit Tree Home

3 bd 2 ba Sleeps 10

6 min downtown · 5 min ORMC · 13 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

Downtown Orlando

Parramore / Downtown Edge

Amelia’s Arena Retreat

4 bd 2 ba Sleeps 8

7 min downtown · 9 min ORMC · 16 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

West Orlando

Washington Shores

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando

4 bd 2 ba Sleeps 13

7 min downtown · 7 min ORMC · 16 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

Fruit Tree Home

About 7 minutes from the office in Holden Heights, this is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom bungalow with a mint-and-white exterior and fruit trees in the yard. It was freshly renovated with a galley kitchen, quartz-look counters, a full-size washer and dryer on site, and keyless entry, and it carries 142 Airbnb reviews at a 4.83 rating. A glass-top dining table that seats four sits off the kitchen. The bedrooms run small, which the listing says plainly, so it fits one or two staff members most comfortably.

Amelia’s Arena Retreat

About 8 minutes away in Parramore, Amelia’s Arena Retreat is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house renovated with white shaker cabinets and granite-look counters, with a dining area that seats four, and the Kia Center is close enough to walk to. One bedroom has its own attached bathroom, which works well if two colleagues on different schedules are sharing the house. The backyard is fenced and shaded by mature trees, though it runs a little overgrown, as the listing notes.

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando

About 9 minutes away in Washington Shores, Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando sits under mature oaks on a shaded lot, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a leather sectional in the living room and blackout curtains in the bedrooms. It sleeps up to 13, which gives it room for a director's whole family or a small group of specialists sharing during a program build. The driveway shows some wear, as the listing notes, but it is private and off the street.

08Billing for a nonprofit organization

For a nonprofit the size of the YMCA of Central Florida, we can write the agreement to the organization rather than to the individual moving in, and send itemized monthly receipts an accounts team can process. A W-9 and a certificate of insurance are available on request, the same as for any company or agency booking, since Libema carries a commercial landlord liability policy. An established organization can also set up net-30 terms on a signed agreement, with the first booking paid up front and net-30 applying to the months after. Our checklist for booking temporary housing for an employee covers what a coordinator usually needs to settle first.

• A written agreement naming the home, the dates, the rate and the deposit
• An itemized monthly receipt addressed to the organization
• A W-9 and certificate of insurance on request

A monthly stay is one clear rate for the whole house, confirmed before you commit, and it always includes the furniture, the kitchen, the washer and dryer, Wi-Fi and private parking, with the deposit and pet policy confirmed the same way. We answer inquiries the same day, so a coordinator working against a start date can usually get a rate and a written agreement back before the next business day closes. Extensions run month by month. Let us know as soon as a program build or a house search looks like running past its planned end, and we will do what we can to keep the same house available for the next month.

09Around downtown and the west side

The association office sits near downtown, an easy reach from the Amelia and 25th Street houses in particular. Our downtown and close-in area guide covers this side of the city in full; the short version is that this is the one part of Orlando where you can get by without the car some days. The Publix at The Paramount on Lake Eola is the walkable downtown grocery, two SunRail stations, LYNX Central and Church Street, run the regional line north toward Winter Park and Sanford and south toward Kissimmee, and the free LYMMO bus circles the downtown core all day.

Holden-Parramore Historic District-1 · Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · resized from 5472x3648

Lake Eola Park has a roughly one-mile sidewalk loop and a Sunday farmers market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A little north, Loch Haven Park gathers the Orlando Museum of Art, the Orlando Science Center, Orlando Shakes and Orlando Family Stage in one place, with Harry P. Leu Gardens, a fifty-acre botanical garden, close by on the lake. College Park's Edgewater Drive, also a short drive from the Amelia and 25th Street houses, is where Foxtail Coffee and Cups & Pups Coffee do business alongside Christo's Cafe. From Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando in Washington Shores, the closer options run more toward a meal than a museum: Nikki's Place, on South Orange Blossom Trail, has cooked soul food since 1999, and Lake Lorna Doone Park, a twelve-acre park rebuilt in 2021 with a walking loop, a splash pad and a lakeside pavilion, sits just north of Camping World Stadium. East of downtown, the Mills 50 district holds the largest Vietnamese-American community in Florida, and the pho and banh mi along Mills Avenue are worth the detour; Z Asian there has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Pharmacies sit along Orange Blossom Trail and West Colonial Drive, plus the Publix pharmacy at Lake Eola and the CVS and Walgreens downtown. Our Washington Shores and west Orlando guide covers that side in more depth.

10Around Pine Hills and the northwest

Five of our thirteen homes sit in the Pine Hills, Rosemont and Lockhart cluster, from about 11 to 14 minutes from the association office: the Head Avenue, Entertainment, Londonderry and Cozy houses in and around Pine Hills, and WinterPark Home in Lockhart. Our Pine Hills and northwest Orlando area guide covers it in full. Presidente Supermarket on North Pine Hills Road is a Latin grocer with a cafeteria and juice counter built in, and a few blocks south on West Colonial Drive, Caribbean Supercenter and Enson Market anchor the area's Caribbean and Asian shopping. For a full-line American supermarket, the Walmart Supercenter on West Princeton Street is the closest big box, which matters for a specialist or trainer stocking a kitchen for the first time in a new city.

The everyday food in Pine Hills is Caribbean and Latin: Island Jam Caribbean Cuisine on North Pine Hills Road is a well-reviewed Haitian kitchen known for griot and fried plantains, and Golden Krust at West Colonial and North Kirkman is the reliable stop for Jamaican beef patties and jerk chicken. Barnett Park, 159 acres on West Colonial Drive and run by Orange County, has a free splash pad, playgrounds, walking trails, disc golf, and basketball and volleyball courts; the Silver Star Recreation Center adds a second public option nearby. For a workout, there is a 24-hour Planet Fitness on Silver Star Road, and Rene's Dynamic Sports Center covers boxing and martial arts. This stretch of the city is a drive-everywhere part of town; SR-408 is the spine, with Silver Star Road, Pine Hills Road and Kirkman Road handling the local trips between a family center and home.

11What's in the house

Every home arrives furnished and ready from the first night: beds made, a kitchen stocked with cookware and dishes, Wi-Fi on, and private parking in a driveway, carport or parking pad. The exact inclusions are confirmed in writing when you book.

Exact inclusions vary a little by home and are confirmed in writing when you book.

On the 25th Street, Amelia and Dollins houses profiled above: Fruit Tree Home has full-size laundry on site and keyless entry, Amelia’s Arena Retreat has a bedroom with its own attached bathroom, and Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando has blackout curtains and a leather sectional. None of the three has a pool; none of our thirteen homes does, since they are residential houses. The 25th Street, Amelia and Dollins houses all publish a street address on the site, so a new hire can see exactly where they would live before committing. Bed and bath counts are the counts in each home's own listing, and a sofa is never counted as a bed.

12What guests said

The quotes below come straight from Fruit Tree Home's Airbnb page, exactly as each guest wrote them, with their name and the month they stayed. Every home on the site carries its own set, and the full collection is on our reviews page.