ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay area programs serving the homeless are seeing more people need assistance following back-to-back hurricanes.
What You Need To Know
- The homeless program section chief at Bay Pines VA Hospital said there have been a lot more calls to the national homeless hotline since the hurricanes
- Mark Green called the hotline after not having anywhere to live after the hurricanes
- Mark is hopeful the team helping him will move him into permanent housing
Yvonne Morales, the Homeless Program Section Chief at Bay Pines VA Hospital, said since the hurricanes came through the area, there have been significantly more veterans reaching out for help.
“Our calls to the National Homeless Hotline for this catchment area, this is from Pinellas County to Collier, increased exponentially, about 120%,” she said.
Mark Green reached out for help after the storms. He is a navy veteran.
He is currently staying at St. Vincent Depaul Cares, a homeless shelter in St. Petersburg.
Mark is grateful to have somewhere to live, but this isn’t somewhere he thought he would be just a couple of months ago.
“I just stayed at the house when Helene came in,” he said. “I didn’t think the water was going to get as high as it did.”
Once he realized he needed somewhere to live, he called the national hotline for homeless veterans.
They got him in contact with Bay Pines VA Hospital.
Mark is in the early stages of the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program through Bay Pines.
They’re working to find him permanent housing.
“I got so many people helping me that I’m grateful for,” he said. “I know things are going to get a lot better and I’m going to be where I need to be.”
The phone number for the national hotline for homeless veterans is 877-424-3838.