Inside St. Petersburg's new shelter for unhoused families
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Local and nonprofit leaders including St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, Metropolitan Ministries CEO Sarah Combs and St. Pete Free Clinic CEO Jennifer Yeagley cut the ribbon on a new shelter for families experiencing homelessness. Video: Kathryn Varn/Axios
A new housing program launched this week in Pinellas County to address what nonprofit leaders say is an urgent need for more family-friendly shelter space.
Why it matters: More than 3,600 children were experiencing homelessness between August last year and January, according to the most recent census of the county's unhoused residents.
What they're saying: "Even one unhoused child, one unhoused family, is too many," said Jennifer Yeagley, CEO of the St. Pete Free Clinic.
- The nonprofit food pantry and healthcare provider partnered with Tampa-based Metropolitan Ministries to launch the program.
Driving the news: Nonprofit, business and city leaders cut the ribbon Wednesday at a new 29-unit emergency shelter in downtown St. Pete intended for families with children and single women to stay for up to six months.
- Residents will have access to services including case management, adult education, trauma counseling, childcare and healthcare.
Plus: A new 10-unit low-rent housing facility in Lealman will offer support to families for up to a year.
- Average rents will run $350 for efficiency units and $500 for two-bedroom apartments, Metropolitan vice president of residential programs Darren McKinnon told Axios.
Between the lines: Part of what spurred the new program was the 2022 closure of Grace House, the county's largest family shelter, said Tim Marks, who recently retired as Metropolitan's CEO and now works as the nonprofit's chief strategy adviser.
- He said Grace House's closure led Metropolitan leaders to ask, "What more can we do in Pinellas?"
The latest: The new shelter had already welcomed eight families as of Wednesday and expects to be at capacity by October, Metropolitan intake supervisor Eric Pritchard told Axios.
- Among the new residents was Taliya Higgins, a 19-year-old expectant mother.
Zoom in: Before she moved into the new shelter on Tuesday, Higgins bounced around from living with the father of her child at his mother's house to living with her own mother and back.
- She found stable housing with her sister in Davenport, but she couldn't find work. Meanwhile, she said, she was contending with abuse in a personal relationship.
- "I knew I wanted to do better," she told Axios, so she looked into Metropolitan's services. She remembered the nonprofit had helped her mother at one point.
Now, she's got a job at Taco Bell, she said, and a peaceful living situation while she awaits her baby girl.