Metropolitan Ministries expands to offer housing in Pinellas County

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Metropolitan Ministries marked a milestone Wednesday with a ribbon cutting to officially launch its first residential housing program in Pinellas County.

“This is a safe space for families to come in from the outside, and we provide shelter and programming in their journey toward self-sufficiency,” said Kip Corriveau, director of Pinellas Residential Programs with Metropolitan Ministries.

The nonprofit has long-served those experiencing homelessness in Pinellas County by offering a variety of programs ranging from hunger relief, job training and family support services, to community outreach.

A new partnership with St. Pete Free Clinic now means providing a residential housing program to go along with those wraparound services.

“Housing is therapeutic, housing is health care,” Corriveau said. “You really can’t sort of function without having those kind of basic needs of food, clothing and shelter taken care of. You can’t concentrate on anything else if you’re worried about those things, and once those are relieved, you actually can work on employment, job skills, psychological health, all kinds of other issues.”

“If you don’t have housing, none of those are going to be addressed,” he said.

The David and Virginia Baldwin Family Residence can sleep more than 100 people and offers an emergency shelter for families. The organization says a second new facility, Lealman Residence, provides affordable housing for families to help them transition to stability.

Erica Wise, who moved in with Tuesday with her family, is working toward that stability. 

“It’s been a struggle being on the streets trying to find somewhere to go,” Wise said. “Three kids and pregnant, so this is a blessing. And I thank Metropolitan for giving me the opportunity to be able to come here and get my life together for me and my kids.”

Spectrum News/Randy Levine

Wise is one of the first to move in and said she’s grateful.

“This to me is step one, and I keep building, I’ll be OK,” she said.

Part of Metropolitan Ministries expansion into Pinellas County includes a new holiday tent site, which will serve more than 5,000 families, starting with the Thanksgiving holiday.