Second Heart Homes expands housing program for adults experiencing homelessness to Manatee County

From her early start catching people who fell between the cracks, a local woman has now seen her nonprofit expand from Sarasota to Manatee County, providing long-term housing and services to the formerly homeless.

And it has done so just as homelessness rates have skyrocketed in the region along with soaring rents and inflation.

Second Heart Homes, founded in Sarasota County in 2019, purchased a seventh home in June – this one in Bradenton – with the help of a $300,000 grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.

The nonprofit will now be able to serve a total of 43 men and women with long-term housing and wrap-around services that focus on mental health and providing stability, dignity and independence, said Megan Howell, founder and executive director of Second Heart Homes.

“It’s not just, ‘Here’s a bed,’ and call it a day,” Howell said.

Instead, the nonprofit’s model – which leaders hope to expand further – differs from other agencies in that the housing is long-term, possibly permanent, and also is accompanied by mental health and life-skills programs that build on participants’ desire to take control of their lives and chart a new course, she said.

In turn, the approach stops what can be a revolving door of instability and trauma for those experiencing homelessness while alleviating the strain on other social service providers, Howell said.

“Once we have this home populated, it will be a total of 43 individuals who without a doubt would have been on the streets suffering or in the hospital or surfing people’s couches,” Howell said.

Where it’s ‘always 2 a.m.’

The nonprofit hopes by August to start moving people into the Manatee County house, which the Barancik grant helped them buy outright.

“Second Heart Homes has shown that its housing-first approach has helped many rebuild their lives while supporting effective mental health outcomes,” said Teri Hansen, president and CEO of the Barancik Foundation. “They have made a positive mark in Sarasota, and we’re eager to see their impact on Manatee County.”

Participants are referred to the nonprofit through courts, churches, doctors, volunteers or social service agencies or contact the agency themselves through the website. Residents pay a small fee and must be committed to addressing their physical and mental health as well as habits toward self-sufficiency.

While case managers don’t live in the homes, they work on a daily basis with residents – who currently range in age from 18 to 73. They help coach them on life skills and goals – everything from job interviews to mapping out a career path to signing up for classes.

“Those are things you can’t address while you are on the street, all your faculties are reserved for that instant, for fight or flight,” Howell said.

“Homelessness itself is a trauma that can exacerbate preexisting mental health issues or trigger new ones,” she added, referring to states of hyper-vigilance. “Being on the street, it’s always 2 a.m.”

It’s an experience hitting more people, as officials report a 25% increase in the number of homeless in the region, with two-thirds of impacted families entering into the system for the first time. The phenomenon, experts say, is part of a nationwide problem compounded by sharp rental increases -- but driven by a severe housing shortage that stems from decades of policies and protests restricting the number of homes being built.

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For the residents of Second Heart Homes, after that primary need of a safe living environment is in place, participants thrive, developing deep friendships and mentorships, along with accountability to housemates, Howell said.

Careers and educations have blossomed, including for one participant now working to become a psychiatric nurse. Another got a job in November two days after entering the agency’s home for women, unable to previously fully focus on employment amid the upheaval of homelessness.

“Once she was off the streets, she hit the ground running.”

Where anything is possible

The agency holds workshops and fun activities for residents, including classes on cooking and poetry.

Many times, residents find in the safe environment an ability to finally confront the effects of past child abuse and trauma. The nonprofit offers up to 10 therapy sessions as well as help accessing other community providers.

Participants’ time living in the homes varies, depending on their goals and needs. It can be short, long-term or even permanent.

Some might end up like her very first client, the inspiration for the nonprofit – a man with severe mental health challenges who had been homeless for 25 years.

Howell recalls talking with the homeless man all the time while she was working at a downtown Sarasota restaurant, studying for her master’s degree in psychology. With an autistic brother and experience working in memory care, she thought she would become a therapist.

That goal changed the day the homeless man went missing. She tracked him down at a hospital where he’d landed after a mental-health emergency, despairing to get off the streets. Howell worked hard to help transfer him to a skilled-nursing facility and visited him every day for six months.

Having earned his trust, she moved him into an apartment and started a limited liability company through which she would sublease units for homeless people.

“If it was a problem, it would be my problem first before the landlord’s,” she said.

She helped the man navigate getting groceries and other tasks. How, she wondered, had he fallen through the cracks for 25 years?

Today that man is a homeowner.

“If that was possible,” she said she had thought about his turnaround, “What is next?”

Not seeing the limited liability company and subleasing route sustainable, she formed a nonprofit, which began buying houses. There, she figured, formerly homeless residents could embrace an elusive stability – a place where landlords would not be able to jack up their rent.

Even as the market began to explode, she was helped by a highly motivated board and a team of volunteers, as well as community partners. That included real estate agents who helped her stay ahead of the curve to jump on good deals that could be fixed up – including the Manatee County home, for which brokers, agents and lawyers donated their commissions and pro bono services while a prominent art gallery gifted artwork.

“You put good things into the universe, and they will come back,” she said.

As for the residents, Howell added, they inspire the nonprofit staff and board every day.

“They have to be the catalyst,” she said about the changes in their lives. “We just thread the needle for them.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Second Heart's housing program expands from Sarasota to Manatee County