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Group Struggling To Help Homeless

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2007

Updated: 09/24/2007 10:45 pm

BRANDON - With no luck finding a location for a soup kitchen to feed Brandon's homeless, Project HOPE is living up to its name. It's hoping good fortune comes its way.

Formed this year, Project HOPE, an acronym for Helping Other People Excel, is a coalition of Brandon area faith and civic organizations interested in helping the community's growing homeless population. Its first priority is to establish one or two soup kitchens to feed the hungry on a regular basis.

Ultimately, the group hopes to build a temporary housing facility for 200 to 300 homeless people and provide financial help, mental health services, spiritual and personal counseling and job-training and placement services.

The group is struggling after seven months to find a central location for a soup kitchen.

Tim Black of First Presbyterian Church of Brandon initially suggested using a building on his church property. However, he later announced his church wouldn't be able to accommodate a soup kitchen.

'We have a preschool on the property, and the insurance liability is just too much,' he said. 'Plus we're fighting the fears of people.'
Project HOPE leader Vince Ferraro, a member of Nativity Catholic Church and board member of the Emergency Care Help Organization, said the concern Black encountered among his congregation is not unusual. Many residents have an innate fear of homeless people 'until you get to know them.'

Ferraro has been helping fellow Project HOPE leader Don Heald feed the homeless on Saturday mornings at the Church of the Nazarene at 114 Kingsway Road.

'Once you get to know them the homeless, you discover they are very nice people and so grateful for everything you're doing for them,' Ferraro said.

Diana Hirsch of Celebration Church in Valrico said that was her experience when she showed up at the Church of the Nazarene with 16 other volunteers from her church Sept. 15 to help feed the homeless.

'They were so polite and considerate,' she said. 'None of them took more than they needed.'

An estimated 2,000 homeless people living in the Brandon area, according to the Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition, are children and families. At least 30 percent have jobs or some income.

It's going to take a grassroots effort, not governmental intervention, to rescue the homeless, said Carol Griffiths, a Valrico resident and Homeless Coalition board member.

She pointed to Broward County where a pastor had a vision about helping the homeless and managed to get the community behind the effort.

'The problem is there, but it's been hidden in Brandon until recently,' she said. 'Now that people are becoming aware, I think they'll take action. Brandon has such a love and such a heart.'

Griffiths said the coalition has identified a possible site for a homeless shelter on 78th Street in Palm River. However, the funding won't be appropriated unless residents show a groundswell of support, she said.

'If the county commission doesn't see the public speaking up, they tune it out,' Ferraro said. 'We need to get into the political arena and have a huge presence as citizens. They react louder with numbers.'

David Childs of First Presbyterian Church of Brandon suggested that each organization begin circulating petitions in favor of building a homeless shelter.

In the meantime, Ferraro said, word is spreading about feeding the needs of the area's homeless, and more volunteers are showing up and donating items for the Saturday gatherings at the Church of the Nazarene as well as the once-a-month gatherings hosted by Cynthia Pinckney Ministries at Able Body Labor, 12006 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Labor Finders, 129 Cook St., Seffner.

'We've got a lot of volunteers from Celebration, St. Stephen and Nativity Catholic churches on board now, and I've been amazed at the resources,' he said. 'But we can't continue to feed people outside. We've been lucky. It hasn't rained yet. But, sooner or later, it will. We're going to need a permanent facility where we can prepare and serve food.'

Black mentioned that someone is willing to donate a mobile home to Project HOPE, but the group will need to find a piece of property to put it on.

HOW YOU CAN HELP PROJECT HOPE
• Anyone wishing to join Project HOPE or help feed the homeless can call Don Heald at (813) 689-9552.

• Anyone with property to donate or lease for use as a soup kitchen can call Tim Black of First Presbyterian Church of Brandon at (813) 689-4597.

Reporter/columnist D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@ tampatrib.com.

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