Starting, Friday, September 1, onePULSE will no longer pay for the upkeep of the temporary Pulse memorial.
OnePULSE terminated its lease for the property earlier this month. The temporary memorial is now back in the hands of its original owners including Barbara Poma.
Moving forward, onePULSE says it’s up to the owners to pay for its maintenance.
Poma stepped down as the director of the nonprofit in April.
A month later in May, onePULSE announced it would be building a permanent Pulse memorial at a different location than the Pulse nightclub, where the shooting took place.
In a statement onePULSE said, "it remains focused on finalizing a new site for the memorial and updating initial designs for the permanent memorial and museum.”
"OnePULSE has no legal authority to manage the site, nor handle its day-to-day care, and security. Therefore, these matters have now become the sole responsibility of the property owners."
WMFE's Nicole Darden Creston reported on Mother's Day, that Pulse survivors were calling for control of the onePULSE foundation, founded after the shooting.
Tiara Parker lost her cousin in the shooting. She put her feelings about the nonprofit this way:
"I’m somebody’s meal ticket and they could care less about me," said Parker. "I can’t tell you how many times I reached out to the club asking for assistance or help and they directed me to places that they knew didn’t have any funds available for victims of any crime."
49 people were killed and more than 50 wounded when a gunman opened fire at the gay nightclub in June 2016.
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