TAMPA, Fla. — According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban development, there are just under 2,300 homeless veterans in Florida.

What You Need To Know

  • The organization is trying to help veterans like Reginald Harris escape homelessness
  • Since 2020, the Resource Empowerment Center has assisted more than 500 veterans

Katrina Osborne, the Director of the Resource Empowerment Center in Tampa, is one organization trying to lower that number.

“We typically do an interest form where they would outline what their goals are that they’re trying to meet, or whatever resource they’re desiring, and then we connect them with an advocate,” she said.

Since 2020, the Resource Empowerment Center has assisted more than 500 veterans.

Reginald Harris is a homeless veteran receiving support from the Resource Empowerment Center.

“I signed up for the United States Navy,” he said. “I was sworn in in Miami on November 22, 1978.” 

He served more than four years and remembers the time fondly, especially when he got to travel across the globe.

“I’ve been homeless on and off for maybe five years,” he said.  

During this period, Harris lived in several shelters and worked at Busch Gardens, but a blood clot forced him to stop working. 

With no home and no car, he carries his life on his back.

“Just sleeping anywhere on the street is really dangerous because you have other homeless people just walk up to you and see what they could take from you and see what they could steal,” he said. “Some would even take your life, and I worry about whether, am I going to survive through the night.”

Harris’s primary goal is to support his two daughters and five grandchildren. 

He and the Resource Empowerment Center are actively assessing the resources available to him. 

With an advocate working closely by his side, he feels a sense of confidence for the first time in years.