With a prayer and 11 shovels, members of the Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee and others began a project they hope will end homelessness and give lower-income seniors a chance at stability.
The vacant lot at 820 W. Garden St. in Pensacola, across from the diocese headquarters on “B” St., is being cleared to make way for Trinity Village. The development includes nine “tiny” homes that will be available for rent to qualifying low-income seniors.
“We thank you for the blessings of this place, for the opportunity to be your colleagues, to care for our brothers and sisters, especially those in great need in our community, that this may be a community of love, peace and joy, and that we may do your will in all things,” Bishop Bill Wack prayed for the project before ground was broken.
Trinity Village is an extension of the diocese’s Trinity House program, a transitional housing program that opened in 2020 and now offers two community homes for older men who are struggling to get back on their feet. For a small fee, the men receive housing, resources and training to support themselves, including how to manage their finances.
Deacon Ray Aguado, of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Gulf Breeze, started the Trinity House program. He saw the need for Trinity Village because of the lack of affordable housing on the rental market for men leaving the program.
“We can get them out of homelessness, give them the skills and the support to become independent, but then there’s nowhere to go,” Aguado said. “They’re ready for the next step and there’s nowhere to go.”
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Trinity Village will be available to both men and women who qualify for the low-income rental homes. Aguado says they hope to have work on the site completed by late fall, and construction of the tiny homes will begin early next year. The diocese owns the land where Trinity Village is being built, but is raising money to support construction, which is estimated to cost a total of $1.1 million. They’ve raised just over $300,000 so far and need another $7 to $8 million to complete the project.
“Our target audience is going to be seniors because they are so vulnerable, with their health and living on a fixed, low income, and they can be easy targets for scammers,” Aguado said. “Yes, there will be rent, but of course it will be affordable. So we’re hoping that we can get our donations so that we can build this without debt and just pay our expenses, our utilities, our insurance, all those things with the rent that we collect. That way we can keep our rent low.”
Community members, the Catholic Church and other supporters attended the ceremonial groundbreaking for Trinity Village, including representatives from the City of Pensacola Homelessness Reduction Task Force and Opening Doors of Northwest Florida, the region’s leading agency on homelessness.
Homeless advocates support the project because it helps aid agencies place people in safe housing and meet the federal goal of reducing homelessness by 25% by 2025.
“One of the eight goals by 2025 is to have 10 percent of the churches in Escambia County (participate). Ten percent is 60 churches,” said Connie Bookman, chair of the Homelessness Reduction Task Force, at the groundbreaking ceremony. “We have 600 churches, so if 60 churches would take in one tiny house or one pallet shelter or one family, we would solve a huge portion of our homelessness. God bless all of you for your investment, for being there, because that means you care and you understand, and I’m just so grateful to be a part of this.”
Bishop Wack is grateful to donors and church supporters who have helped bring the project to this point. He is excited about the work they are doing with Trinity House and Trinity Village and hopes it will be an inspiration to other churches in the area.
“(It’s) been said, if every place of worship would take one homeless person who was at risk of becoming homeless, we could easily solve this problem,” Wack said. “It just takes every church, if we could all take one person. We’re going to do nine (houses) here in the hopes that it will grow.”
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Projects like these are especially welcome news for homeless advocates, as communities are not only grappling with skyrocketing rents, but also a new state law that goes into effect Oct. 1 that prohibits local governments from allowing homeless people to camp on public property. Escambia County and the city of Pensacola are both clearing camps from public property. While they offer services to people who want to get off the streets, advocates say the evictions will scatter people across the area with few places for them to go.
“It’s almost impossible to find homes that people can afford to rent,” said Serene Keiek, interim executive director of Opening Doors. “This is what we need to do moving forward. This is how we get momentum and house people and find those solutions and become a safe community again.”
The city of Pensacola worked with the diocese to develop and design the tiny house development. City Councilwoman Allison Patton, who also serves on the Homelessness Reduction Task Force, was on hand to witness the groundbreaking.
“These types of permanent supportive housing developments are exactly what we need to really move the needle in the right direction,” Patton said. “The local Catholic diocese is helping homeless seniors find a place where they can afford to live safely, so I’m really excited about this development and I hope we do more projects like this.”
To learn more about Trinity Village or Trinity House, visit the Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee website.
This article originally appeared in Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Trinity Village Tiny Affordable Homes for Seniors
