PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — It’s almost like deja vu. Tangela Butler is moving again.
“These were all the boxes that were given to me so that I could start packing,” Butler said as she thumbed through the stack of collapsed U-Haul boxes that sat in a corner of her living room.
It’s a familiar task for Butler.
Her last move was a little more than a year ago. ABC Action News was there as she packed boxes just a couple of days before Christmas in 2021.
Back then, Butler was the latest victim of Tampa Bay’s housing crisis. Butler had to leave the home in St. Petersburg, where she had lived with children and grandchildren for six years because her landlord at the time was spurred to sell the home in the hot real estate market.
For Butler, it was a dark time.
“I was in a deep state of depression, and I know — I’ve never ever been that depressed before in my life,” she remembered. “It just does something to you. Like, mentally — physically — it just does something to you when you have to look at your children every day not knowing where you’re going to be living.”
Butler, however, did not give up. Eventually, she found her current rental home. While Butler does consider it affordable, she says it is still a burden to pay the rent each month.
“It takes a whole paycheck and part of another one,” she said.
The experience got Butler, a school bus driver, thinking. How do those who make less than she does afford housing in Tampa Bay? What could she do to help those people?
After reflecting on those questions, she founded the Facebook group Renter”s Lives Matter.
The page is simple. It’s a place for Butler and others to share hope and affordable apartment listings with followers — many of whom are complete strangers.
“Matter of fact, I just posted something on my way here,” she said Monday, as she pulled up one of the more recent listings on her phone.
According to Butler, the page has already helped a few of its 3,244 members.
“I can’t describe to you how that makes me feel inside,” Butler said. “I know I wasn’t the only one that was depressed. I know I wasn’t the only one feeling the way I was feeling.”
For Butler, creating the page was a good deed that was rewarded because a year after the personal heartbreak that drove her to depression came an unimaginable surprise.
After one failed application to Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties, her second attempt was successful.
The nonprofit called Butler to its office in November. Butler thought she was going there to complete some perfunctory paperwork. Instead, President/CEO Mike Sutton delivered the surprise.
“We wanted to let you know that you’ve been accepted into our program,” he told Butler as the room erupted in applause.
To Butler, it was a moment she will remember forever.
“It was a beautiful moment,” she said.
The approval means she should be a homeowner by this time next year, and it means the move she’s preparing for this time is a happy one.
“I’m actually — I’m very excited,” she said as she glanced at the pile of U-Haul boxes. “I’m happy compared to how I was a year ago.”
The triumph, however, is only the result of hard work and determination.
According to Sutton, the process of owning a Habitat for Humanity home — which are sold to owners like Butler with 0% interest, 30 to 40-year mortgages — is significant. The process requires the completion of 32 homebuyer education classes and 350 “sweat equity” hours.
To Butler, the process of becoming a homeowner has given her new focus and skills she never thought she would attain, and she hopes others will follow in her footsteps.
“Keep going,” she said. “Don’t give up. Don’t give in.”
According to Sutton, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties does not currently have an application waiting list, but about a hundred families are working on the intensive process. To learn more, CLICK HERE.
Butler, meanwhile, acknowledges that local governments have taken steps to protect renters and create more affordable housing, but she would like to see more steps in 2023.