Provide Wayne with a Safe Home and Hope

Hi. My name is Lori and I am asking for your help in keeping my friend Wayne in some kind of housing.

As many of you may know, I am a regular volunteer at Trinity Cafe here in Tampa. It is a cafe that provides a hot meal, 7 days a week, to our homeless or food-insecure citizens. I've been a regular volunteer for 3 years now and that is where I came to know Wayne.

Wayne takes the bus from Sulphur Springs, where he has been living, down to the cafe and is our very first daily diner to be seated each day. He has limited mobility and it takes him a while to get seated because he suffered a massive stroke approximately 13 years ago and is paralyzed on his left side. But he always has a warm smile on his face and his laugh is infectious! All the volunteers love to look after him. We help him get seated and scooted up to the table and butter his bread.

He wears the pictured crash helmet because a section of his skull was not replaced after a life-saving surgery. He is unable to work and has no benefits. The Sulphur Springs property where he had been given a room to live for the past year or so has been sold. As of Saturday, March 1st, he has nowhere to go.

Since the stroke, he has had periods of homelessness and he has been in and out of every shelter in the area. There are no current programs to help him permanently. Believe me, I have called many numbers and taken him to resource events to no avail. And the kind sirs that have been helping him for the past decade have also exhausted every avenue. I was in tears after repeatedly hearing, "I'm sorry, there is just nothing we can do."

Well, I don't accept that!

There is something we can do. We can come together and offer support!

Ideally, I'd love to see him in an assisted living facility, but he doesn't qualify and they are more costly. He is grateful to just have a room in a boarding house. Even those are proving hard to find, but there is one that I am hoping will take him in as soon as they have space or can make space.

The rent will be approximately $500-$525 per month. Offering the landlord at least a full year's rent might get him in the door faster. Until we find stable accommodations, I am also searching for a temporary solution.

It was said to me that fundraising isn't a viable solution for the rest of his life. That might be true, but I can't be another person to shrug him off and say, "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do for you." Today, in this NOW moment, I can do my best to help him. Where there is a will, there is a way and Wayne certainly has the will to live!

I have never faced homelessness and I have never had to worry about where my next meal is coming from. I can't imagine being in his physical condition AND facing this challenge. He stays calm and keeps trusting God to provide.

I do believe that it says a LOT about our character by how we treat the least of them. If you know how blessed you are, please give generously, but no amount is too small.

If 300 people could give a mere $20 Wayne could have a room for an entire year!

If this reaches 160 people who could afford $100 we could achieve GOAL! I'd love to see this goal exceeded!