Second Heart Homes expands housing program for adults experiencing homelessness to Manatee County
July 18, 2022
Second Heart Homes expands housing program for adults experiencing homelessness to Manatee County, Herald-Tribune
From her early start catching people who fell between the cracks, a local woman has now seen her nonprofit expand from Sarasota to Manatee County, providing long-term housing and services to the formerly homeless.
And it has done so just as homelessness rates have skyrocketed in the region along with soaring rents and inflation.
Second Heart Homes, founded in Sarasota County in 2019, purchased a seventh home in June – this one in Bradenton – with the help of a $300,000 grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.
The nonprofit will now be able to serve a total of 43 men and women with long-term housing and wrap-around services that focus on mental health and providing stability, dignity and independence, said Megan Howell, founder and executive director of Second Heart Homes.
“It’s not just, ‘Here’s a bed,’ and call it a day,” Howell said.
Instead, the nonprofit’s model – which leaders hope to expand further – differs from other agencies in that the housing is long-term, possibly permanent, and also is accompanied by mental health and life-skills programs that build on participants’ desire to take control of their lives and chart a new course, she said.
In turn, the approach stops what can be a revolving door of instability and trauma for those experiencing homelessness while alleviating the strain on other social service providers, Howell said.
“Once we have this home populated, it will be a total of 43 individuals who without a doubt would have been on the streets suffering or in the hospital or surfing people’s couches,” Howell said.