Bay Area nonprofit receives $175,000 grant to help domestic abuse survivors with housing
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A nonprofit dedicated to helping domestic violence survivors and standing up to silence just got more help with its mission.
Community Action Stops Abuse of Pinellas County, or CASA, recently received a $175,000 grant from TD Bank. The money will be used to safely rehouse people into their own apartments or homes away from their abusers, Lariana Forsythe, CEO of CASA Pinellas, said.
"This money is incredibly helpful to us because most of the money that we receive for housing is federally funded," Forsythe said. "We do this through federal contracts, and it's very specific about what we can do and how we can do it. This funding from TD Bank allows us to go in and do renovations and provide support that we wouldn't necessarily be able to have the flexibility to do in different ways that participants really need," she said.
"People don't often realize, but the number one cause of homelessness for women and children is domestic violence," Forsythe said. "If you're living with somebody who is abusive and you can't afford your own home or your own living arrangements, what do you do? It's very common for perpetrators to sabotage things too, like to keep control over the victim they'll sabotage their credit so they can't leave. They'll make sure that they are, you know, not showing up to work on time so they get released from work so they can't support themselves independently," she said.
Forsythe said they’re trying to decide which projects to spend the money on. She thinks it will go toward two transitional housing projects, one in Clearwater and one in St. Pete.
"We can house people either permanently or for up to two years depending on the grant. But then we also have something called rapid rehousing where we're able to help mitigate some issues with landlords and things like that and get people some deposit funding to help them get into their own apartment," she said.
"We just opened a new housing project up in Clearwater. We're super excited about that project. We’ll actually be rehousing families in that housing project here in just a couple of weeks," Forsythe said. "Anything and everything that we can do CASA to help survivors untangle this complicated web and create this independence so that they can move forward with a happy, healthy life, that’s what we’re here to do," she said.
TD Bank picked grant recipients in multiple markets across the country. CASA was the only nonprofit in the Tampa Bay Area to get the money for housing.
If you or someone you know needs help, CASA’s Pinellas Domestic Violence Hotline is 727-895-4912. The Marion County line is 352-722-2272. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
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