A milestone for Tampa’s tiny homes for the homeless: A community center
The 7,000 sq. ft. building broke ground on Monday. When complete, it will be a hub for Tampa Hope residents to access services.

By Olivia George
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Jun 25, 2024

TAMPA — For more than two decades, Maria Rivera-Hernandez dedicated herself to helping New York City’s homeless. A director of social services at a local nonprofit, she ran shelters, shepherded women off the streets and did her best to offer some semblance of security as housing demand dwarfed supply.

“I never thought I would be in their shoes,” said Rivera-Hernandez, 62.

Yet an abusive relationship and addiction eventually landed her on Tampa’s sunbaked streets, living beside a bridge with a bundle of belongings, trying to claw back stability in a region where the cost of living has soared.

She arrived at Tampa Hope, a shelter tucked into the industrial sprawl of the city’s eastern edge, in a police cruiser last October. It’s here or jail, an officer told her.

First, she lived in one of the 125 tents on site. In April, she was among the first to move into the shelter’s new tiny homes.

On Monday, she was among those celebrating as the shelter, run by Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg, marked another milestone: The groundbreaking of a 7,000 square-foot community center.

When complete next year, the facility will serve as a hub for residents to access a range of social and medical services in a quest to get people off the streets and into permanent housing.

“Being homeless is not easy,” Rivera-Hernandez said from outside her 64-square-foot tiny home on Monday. “Having a safe place to rest and a team supporting you, well, that means everything.”

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether cities can criminalize sleeping outdoors or in tents, state and local governments are eying tiny homes as an efficient way to offer temporary relief to a national cost of living crisis. Proponents bet that such housing can provide more privacy and security than traditional shelters where multiple people sleep in communal rooms.

In Florida, leaders are looking to Tampa Hope as a potential model — one that is gaining more traction after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that bans people from sleeping overnight in parks, on sidewalks and in other public spaces. The ban takes effect Oct. 1.

Tampa Hope has served more than 1,100 clients since opening in December 2021, placing about a third into permanent housing. Most are men. Almost a third struggle with substance use. Eleven percent went to college. Five percent are veterans.

Residents have three meals a day, as well as access to services including mental health counseling, financial management classes and medical care. The daily cost per person is about $26, according to Catholic Charities.

“They’re not just providing the basic needs of shelter and food to keep them alive,” Mayor Jane Castor said at Monday’s groundbreaking, to a crowd including representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, as well as staff from Hernando, Citrus and Pasco counties.

“They’re providing the wrap-around services that can allow someone to get back up on their feet and become productive members of their community,” Castor said.

The $1.5 million community center, funded entirely by a donation from Drew and Susan Peloubet, will include a kitchen and dining area, restrooms, showers and a laundry room. At the moment, residents use porta toilets and mobile showers.

Catholic Charities also operates Pinellas Hope in Clearwater, opened 17 years ago on swampland that has transformed into a sprawling homeless refuge, helping thousands.

Tampa Hope opened on Third Avenue in December 2021 with tents on wooden pallets, funded by a mix of private donations and tax dollars. Catholic Charities predicted that 100 tiny homes, dubbed “hope cottages” would be built sometime in 2022. The city provided $750,000 to pay for 75 of them.

The cottages weren’t assembled until spring of 2023. They weren’t occupied until this spring.

Today, 99 tiny homes have now been hooked up to the electrical grid and grounded to withstand Category 5 hurricane force winds. They come with fold-out beds and air conditioning.

Rivera-Hernandez shares her tiny home with her husband, Alfred Rice, 64, who she met on the streets 11 years ago after she left her previous abusive relationship. They moved to Tampa Hope together, staying in separate tents.

“We are back together as a family,” she said. “We are made anew.”

The nonprofit has its eyes on future expansion, hoping to add 100 more tiny homes to the complex.

Rivera-Hernandez, though, won’t witness the expansion or the center’s completion firsthand. Next week, she and her husband are moving into their own apartment near the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.

After almost a decade of marriage, they’ll finally have a place to cook family meals, their own bathroom and bedroom.