SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. — Justin Keding is a marine corp veteran. Final yr he was renting a studio residence in St. Pete and located himself in want of reasonably priced housing.
“It is gone up actually excessive now. If I used to be nonetheless paying hire it will be double my mortgage,” mentioned Keding.
Due to Have a good time Outreach he’s the proprietor of a tiny dwelling. The group has labored with different native teams to construct tiny houses to assist people who find themselves struggling to seek out reasonably priced housing.
Dr. Monika Alesnick, CEO of the Homeless Management Alliance of Pinellas that helps coordinate shelters.
“On Friday, we had 118 households on our shelter waitlist,” mentioned Alesnick.
She mentioned homelessness remains to be a vital problem in Pinellas County.
“We’re seeing conventional numbers, we haven’t seen an enormous lower which is clearly what we would like,” mentioned Alesnick.
The latest point-in-time examine exhibits that the general quantity of people who find themselves homeless has barely decreased during the last 4 years.
Nevertheless, Pinellas County Colleges information exhibits the variety of homeless college students has elevated over the identical time interval.
Sabine von Aulock with Have a good time Outreach works instantly with the homeless in downtown St. Pete.
“Housing is the primary problem our homeless neighborhood is going through. Definitely, there are different points like well being and jobs, however housing is primary, we’ve got to get individuals housed first,” mentioned von Aulock.
She mentioned greater than 100 individuals died whereas residing on the streets of Pinellas County in 2022.
“The challenges are immense in surviving on the streets,” mentioned von Aulock.
The hope is that every tiny dwelling gives homeownership to individuals who in any other case wouldn’t have it.
“It appears tiny and insignificant and it is one tiny dwelling at a time however it will likely be one family that’s stably housed,” mentioned von Aulock.
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