Collaborative, comprehensive housing support

Metropolitan Ministries was founded in 1972, when 13 Tampa-area churches joined forces to care for people experiencing homelessness. The organization has grown, but its mission is consistent: 

• Alleviate suffering by providing hunger relief, safe shelter and family support centers
• Promote dignity through educational programs from early childhood to adulthood, trauma-informed counseling and therapeutic programming, and life skills, workforce development and financial literacy programs 
• Instill self-sufficiency with assistance finding affordable housing and career placement

Holistic, easily accessible services help families build security as they transition out of Metropolitan Ministries’ campus shelter program, Marks said. 

“We focus on education, childcare and family support—it’s the only way we can achieve our desired outcome of 90% success after graduation,” he said. 

Meeting a growing need

“Rising rents, in-migration from the north and low wages have all placed greater pressures on families in our market,” Marks said. 

Metropolitan Ministries recently completed two major developments to help support families struggling with those pressures: 

MiraclePlace Pasco

Metropolitan Ministries doubled the shelter capacity at its west Pasco County campus and significantly expanded its services with a nearly 30,500-square-foot expansion. The project, expected to be complete in 2025, added: 

• A new residential building with 24 additional units for families experiencing homelessness and an after-school education facility
• A 10-classroom Early Childhood Education Center for children living at the campus and community families 
• A 10,000-square-foot Family Support Center expected to provide homelessness prevention services to 3,650 people per year, along with a market-style food bank 

J.P. Morgan made a $6.3 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) equity investment that helped fund the campus expansion. 

It’s a model that’s worked before. A similar expansion at Metropolitan Ministries’ Tampa campus helped the organization bring more families comprehensive services in a one-stop setting.

J.P. Morgan supported the Tampa campus project, too, providing $8.8 million in NMTC investment to help the organization expand its kitchen and dining facility, add transitional housing, and create a new childcare center, primary school and youth enrichment center. 

This expanded real estate will allow Metropolitan Ministries to grow its Learner to Earner job training programs in culinary arts and childcare, as well as food distribution and community events including a holiday hot meals operation serving more than 30,000 families.

SabalPlace

In addition to supporting families affected by Florida’s affordable housing shortage, Metropolitan Ministries decided to help narrow the gap with SabalPlace, a permanent supportive housing development for families in its transitional and emergency shelter programs. 

“When you see people go from sleeping in cars to having a place to call their own, it’s a life-changing impact,” Marks said.  

SabalPlace, which opened in 2020, has 112 housing units affordable to families earning 60% or less of the area median income, with 79 units reserved for households experiencing homelessness and 23 for survivors of domestic violence. The garden-style community’s amenities include a clubhouse, splash park, activity rooms and on-site access to Metropolitan Ministries’ programs. 

J.P. Morgan provided a $14.5 million construction loan and $11.2 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity to help finance SabalPlace’s development. 

Supporting greater community impact

Metropolitan Ministries’ relationship with J.P. Morgan goes beyond NMTC investment and lending, including program grants, hurricane relief aid and support for leadership development training. 

“It’s taken us from being an $8 million charity to a $50 million charity with less than 20% of our support coming from government grants,” Marks said. “Beyond our housing of 600 children, our hunger-relief and prevention programs touch over 70,000 families on an annual basis.”  

Those programs assist families throughout the Tampa Bay area, and Metropolitan Ministries’ reach is growing. In addition to expanding its own campuses, a recent initiative with the YMCA of St. Petersburg will expand Metropolitan Ministries’ services in Pinellas County.  

The organization’s mission has also connected with J.P. Morgan employees, who have been volunteering with Metropolitan Ministries for more than 12 years, said J.P. Morgan Community Manager Leigh Weaver. In 2024, 144 employees volunteered at seven different events, from pitching in at the Tampa campus to aiding relief efforts after Hurricane Milton. And J.P. Morgan has delivered more than 75 financial health workshops at Metropolitan Ministries’ Hillsborough Family Support Center as part of the organization’s mission to promote self-sufficiency.

“From serving meals to sorting donations and helping families shop for food, each visit to Metropolitan Ministries leaves a lasting sense of gratitude. Nothing feels more rewarding than knowing you are contributing to someone’s life during a tough period while treating them with respect and dignity,” Weaver said.