SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. — Justin Keding is a marine corp veteran. Last year he was renting a studio apartment in St. Pete and found himself in need of affordable housing.
"It's gone up really high now. If I was still paying rent it would be double my mortgage," said Keding.
Thanks to Celebrate Outreach he is the owner of a tiny home. The organization has worked with other local groups to build tiny homes to help people who are struggling to find affordable housing.
Dr. Monika Alesnick, CEO of the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas that helps coordinate shelters.
"On Friday, we had 118 families on our shelter waitlist," said Alesnick.
She said homelessness is still a critical issue in Pinellas County.
"We’re seeing traditional numbers, we haven’t seen a huge decrease which is obviously what we want," said Alesnick.
The most recent point-in-time study shows that the overall amount of people who are homeless has slightly decreased over the last four years.
However, Pinellas County Schools data shows the number of homeless students has increased over the same time period.
Sabine von Aulock with Celebrate Outreach works directly with the homeless in downtown St. Pete.
"Housing is the number one issue our homeless community is facing. Certainly, there are other issues like health and jobs, but housing is number one, we have to get people housed first," said von Aulock.
She said more than 100 people died while living on the streets of Pinellas County in 2022.
"The challenges are immense in surviving on the streets," said von Aulock.
The hope is that each tiny home provides homeownership to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it.
"It seems tiny and insignificant and it's one tiny home at a time but it will be one household that is stably housed," said von Aulock.
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