Tampa nonprofit needs help finding new home after rent spike
TAMPA - Local non profit Mujeres Restauradas por Dios, or Women Restored by God, has been distributing food and helping people in need for eight years.
This year, a financial blow could cause an abrupt end: The landlord of the premises that the group occupies at 4310 N Nebraska Ave. has told them he could terminate their contract if they do not pay the new rental price of $3,000 per month.
“There is no way,” said Puerto Rican Nancy Hernández, 60, the group’s founder. “We just can’t afford that amount. It’s a 100% increase.”
Hernandez said the housing market crisis and inflation are a nightmare. The burden is even heavier for groups working to help people who are struggling with the cost of living and extreme poverty, Hernandez said. The group organizes weekly food donations, job search assistance and offers people counseling and educational workshops.
The nonprofit was established in 2014 to help poor families in the Tampa Bay area. That year, The Tampa Underground Network, an independent church that promotes and supports local leaders and community movements, gave Hernandez a small office in University Mall to do her social work. In May 2021, Hernandez moved to Nebraska Avenue, confident that she would stay there for a long time.
Friends and volunteers from her organization remodeled the place, installed new electrical connections, changed the floors and painted the walls. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held and speeches were heard from community and religious leaders, and politicians such as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat.
“Everything was going well until the rent explosion hit,” Hernandez said.
This week Hernandez asked the community for help finding an affordable facility. Her group is looking for a place where she and her volunteers can set up an office and to keep their donations, including meats, canned goods, vegetables, rice, fruit and snacks for children.
“It’s a race against time,” Hernandez said. “I know it’s not easy, but I’m sure something good will happen.”
Hernandez and her volunteers work feverishly every week on an assembly line. Middle-aged men and women fill boxes and bags with fresh food that they deliver to the area’s poor.
Hernandez’s group has partnered with organizations like Feeding Tampa Bay, the region’s food bank that delivers hundreds of boxes of goods for distribution every Wednesday and Friday.
Hernandez said they have delivered more than 1.5 million pounds of food in the last year and a half. On Wednesdays, the busiest day, her group distributes at least 400 bags of food.
“It’s a nonstop pace,” Hernandez said. “A lot of people need help.”
One of them has been Ecuadorian Alex Aleman. He arrived in Tampa over a year ago with his wife Soraya and his 14-year-old teenage daughter, Maria.
Aleman said he found “a life saver” amid the difficulties at Hernandez’s support group. The 49-year-old man got a part-time job as a mechanic and a place for his family. He also said that he received food donations.
Aleman is now one of the 12 volunteers who help Hernandez. For him it is a way to repay the support he received.
“That’s why I hope this situation is resolved,” Aleman said. “More than good wishes, we need a collaboration.”
