TAMPA, Fla. — In between I-4 and the Selmon Expressway, east of Ybor City, more than a hundred people who used to be homeless now have safe shelter.
For a few years, the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Petersburg has offered tents for people to live but only recently are they moving some into private cottages.
“You can just walk in, shut the door and you don’t got to listen to nothing else,” Laura Hay, a new cottage resident said.
Two weeks ago, the 58-year-old moved into this 64-square-foot cottage, one of about a hundred at Tampa Hope that are now ready to give unhoused people a roof over their heads.
Hay now has A/C instead of sweltering in the Florida heat. She had been living outside for most of the last ten years.
“Yeah, it's nice and cool,” she said. “It's nice to have the air.”
Most recently, Hay was living outside a bus stop in Brandon until a few months ago when she heard about Tampa Hope.
“Actually, the bobcats were getting pretty close,” she remembered. “The hardest thing was sleeping on the ground. There was no place to go.”
“The word has been getting out,” Lou Ricardo, Catholic Charities Director of Marketing said. “We had 30 people at intake this morning, so we have a lot of people coming in.”
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Petersburg got funding for the cottages from the city of Tampa.
“One of our missions is to fulfill Christ's corporal works of mercy,” he said. “Shelter, food, clothing. And that's what we do here.”
When Hay first came she lived in one of Tampa Hope's 100+ tents. That is where all new people are first offered to stay before they can transition to a cottage. Catholic Charities says it has been successful in transitioning at least one person from a cottage to a permanent home.
“I think I'm going to end up in a home somewhere and I'm going to live,” Hay said. “I'm going to live like I used to live is what I'm hoping, very much so.”
Hay is hoping it'll end her journey to finally be home.
The funding from the city helped the cottages get off the ground but Catholic Charities is now seeking donations to maintain the homes and they want to build a hundred more.
You can learn more about Tampa Hope and donate to them directly by texting TAMPAHOPE to 243725 or by visiting their website here.