"We’re not just giving them a place to stay. We’re giving them their lives back."
-- Janet Stringfellow
Over the last 10 months, the residents of Innovare apartments sitting at the long tables had transformed. After living in tents, cars and shelters, they had moved into 25 new, furnished units in two downtown towers. With the help of $18 million in government, private and nonprofit funding, they have been sleeping in beds in their own apartments and getting counselors’ help signing up for benefits, making budgets, cooking. Many got jobs and rebuilt family relationships. They look happier, healthier.
The housing experiment set out to offer a full reset for its lucky residents.
What would it look like to pluck people off the streets, help them navigate their struggles and hand them keys to a new life? Or to offer minimum-wage workers a place they could afford? How would leaders measure success?
Stringfellow, CEO of Volunteers of America of Florida, which oversees the housing experiment, said it’s working so well, it could become a model across the state — and country.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times