TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A newly renovated 60-bed shelter for veterans experiencing homelessness is now open in Tampa, with the goal of helping residents move into permanent housing.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough CARE Center is a partnership between Hillsborough County and St. Vincent de Paul CARES. The county contributed more than $4 million from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program to improve the property and repair the buildings.<\/p>\n
Army veteran Michael Miller, who recently moved to Tampa from Los Angeles, is the first veteran to stay at the shelter. He said he was quickly placed in a room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin about an hour or two hours I was in a bed,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Miller said he was impressed by the quality of the room, which includes a closet and a lock to secure his belongings. He also said he has access to food and a counselor who will help him plan his next steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come somewhere where I could literally come in one day, make a phone call, they tell me that they have a room, and I\u2019m in a bed within the hour with food,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe chef is going to cook food for me, and also whatever I need, they\u2019ll make sure that I have it. It\u2019s unthinkable, and it\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Raposa, CEO of St. Vincent de Paul CARES, said the organization took over the facility in February 2025. The property had previously housed homeless veterans under a different owner, but Raposa said it needed significant work to meet the organization\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou ever start a tiny little project in your house, and then you move something, and then something else falls apart? Well, that\u2019s what this was,\u201d Raposa said.<\/p>\n
Raposa said renovations took nearly a year and a half and included new electrical systems, roofs, plumbing, and other improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese men and women gave up their lives and gave up their families and sacrificed for us,\u201d Raposa said. \u201cThey deserve the very best, as they\u2019re trying to get themselves back on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A newly renovated 60-bed shelter for veterans experiencing homelessness is now open in Tampa, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,1011,1013,274,770,276,1190,2200,4628,115,135,137,136,278,2032,3393,835],"class_list":["post-363052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-latest-human-interest-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-human-interest","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-veterans","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}