TAMPA, Fla. — Answering the phone at Metropolitan Ministries can be a roller coaster of emotions, and for Marcia Hall, that’s especially true during the current cold snap.
“I got off the phone with a young lady today. She was downtown, crying, she had young kids, and she was pregnant herself, but nowhere to go,” she said Wednesday.
Hall can relate.
Even though she was never homeless in the cold, she was homeless for a time in the heat of summer. So now, it’s not just sadness but joy, too, as she answers the phones at Metropolitan Ministries.
“It feels so good to know that I talked to this person, like the young lady, and know that she’s coming to get help,” she said.
Right now, her nonprofit is helping dozens weather the cold snap. Each day, the nonprofit provides families with hotel vouchers.
“As of today, we have offered 75 hotel rooms for families with children, so that’s about 71 adults and 146 children,” explained Justine Burke, a spokesperson for the nonprofit.
For Metropolitan Ministries, it’s a record-setting amount of help and the most it's ever given out during a cold snap.
“The trend we’re seeing right now is that we’ve provided three times more hotel vouchers than we have ever before during a cold weather snap,” said Burke. “If we weren’t able to provide those hotel rooms, then the families really don’t have anywhere to go. So, they’re either outside, in the car, living in the car, or just living in homes, you know, without heat.”
The increased demand means the nonprofit needs even more support from the community, either through monetary donations or donations of blankets and jackets to its Tampa warehouse at 2101 N Florida Ave.
Hall hopes more will step up to help and that more will reach out to get help, especially right now.
Families with minor children in need of cold weather shelter should call (813) 209-1176 to pre-register.
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