When Randy Heath had nowhere to go, he found refuge at Homeless Helping Homeless in Tampa, and now he is the director of public relations at the emergency shelter.
Heath has a degree in communications, with a minor in business advertisement from the University of Maryland. While he was retired, he had a successful career in audio production, also owning a couple of businesses on the side. But six months ago, everything changed when things went array with his businesses.
“Technically, I became homeless, and that is what made me seek HHH,” Heath said.
Heath felt welcomed there, like he was “a part of the family.”
Homeless Helping Homeless, established in 2009, has five separate shelters. And according to Heath, they intend to have fifteen more by the end of the year. Since the shelter runs economically on donations, it will be no easy feat.
The shelter is commonly referred to, and marketed as, a peer to peer emergency shelter. According to Heath, a peer to peer system is far more effective than having residents, “thrown on a couch and psychoanalyzed,” by a counselor or doctors.
“When we have someone walk in the door here at this shelter, we are there to listen to them, and we understand them,” Heath said.
Heath also mentioned that that a peer to peer system makes it easier to relate to the homeless men and women. “You have people that have been there before, and the sheer fact that you can talk to someone who has been down the road, and we are available to them,” he said.
Heath said he is motivated by “a lot of coffee, and to see folks Succeed.”
Homeless Helping Homeless, is also the only shelter of its kind in Tampa. “There is only 14 peer to peer programs in the United States, and we are one of them,” Heath said.
The other agencies have time frames of 90 days, according to Heath. “You’re either fixed, or you’ve ‘gotta’ go, and you can’t come back for six months. When you have someone that’s been out on the streets for five years, 90 days is not going to do it. We don’t do that here.”
Heath’s partner, and the minister at the organization, Deryl Taylor, said “in 2012, 16,000 people were homeless, and one in five are children”.
In 2019 that number reached 28,000. The statistics for homeless in the Tampa Bay community, as Heath described it, “are substantial and progressively getting worse.”
Heath and HHH are seeking help from the Tampa Bay community, accepting donations of shoes in “slightly used” condition, for all ages and genders.
The shoe campaign came about in a round table meeting, according to Heath. “Shoes are an issue on colder nights, it gets rather difficult,” he said, “it’s difficult to acquire shoes when you have no money. Food stamps cannot buy shoes.”
Heath and HHH will be handing out shoes, and anyone who needs them will get them.
Shoe donations will be accepted every day of the week at 801 E St Clair St Tampa, FL 33602. If you would like information on donating money to the shelter text 844-262-8160 or visit homelesshhh.org.
The shoe campaign will be ongoing, and Heath does not see an end in sight.
“We do not intend to actually put a stop to any donation. They go as quick as they come in,” he said.
