CLEARWATER, Fla. — Pinellas County is losing one of its biggest homeless shelters and one of the few that offers family units.
Hope Villages of America announced it would transition its property known as Grace House from a homeless shelter to affordable housing units starting Oct. 1. At a news conference Wednesday, leaders of the organization were quick to point out that the transition is bittersweet.
"The number one way to resolve homelessness is affordable housing, making it affordable for people to stay in their homes," said Jonita Lewis, the Executive Vice President with Hope Villages. "We’re also saddened by the reality that we’ll have to eliminate 80 beds for families facing homelessness."
During the 40-minute news conference, President and CEO Kirk Ray Smith spent more time explaining how they got here than what's ahead. Smith said when the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County cut its annual funding of $400,000, Grace House was effectively shut down.
He says through fundraising efforts, the shelter remained operational for another 18 months, but they had no choice but to pursue a different approach.
"We worked our behinds off to raise enough money to keep these doors open because we knew how important this work was so we were able to raise a half million dollars in 90 days," said Smith, who also claimed the Juvenile Welfare Board kept moving the target after Hope Villages made the required adjustments.
However, the president and CEO of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, Beth Houghton, said they had seen issues with Grace House the last several years and in 2019, they conducted a more thorough investigation.
"A picture emerged that management spoke to and dealt with staff in a demeaning manner. Management lacked client skills and spoke to participants in the program in harsh and belittling ways," Houghton said.
The JWB decided to give that $400,000 to another agency in the county serving homeless families by placing them in short-term hotel rooms rather than long-term stays at a shelter like Grace House.
Despite the "he said, she said" over what happened, all parties agree losing homeless beds will hurt the community.
"Anytime you lose any of it, it’s not good," Houghton said.
At the news conference, Smith said, "It hurt to do this."
Amy Foster, CEO of the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas, a government agency overseeing homeless agencies in the county said family placement is a big problem.
"There’s never enough family beds," Foster said.
As of this article, 91 families in the county, some with very young children, are sleeping in the streets or in cars tonight, according to Foster. She believes with the federal funding opportunities through pandemic relief packages, more could have been done to preserve Grace House as a homeless shelter.
"I think there were options on the table including ones the city of Clearwater tried to explore with them that were not the direction the agency chose to go with," Foster said.
Hope Villages of America will host two community discussions at 11 a.m. on July 27 at Grace House, and at 9 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2022 via Zoom.
The transition to affordable housing will start on Oct. 1.