Making a House a Home

In 2021, the City of Sarasota’s Homeless Outreach Team (H.O.T.) approached Resurrection House about helping those on the streets make a smoother transition into housing. After a lot of conversation back and forth, the “Floor No More” program was launched. This program helps ease both anxiety and financial burdens by providing homeless individuals with daily living essentials for their new house at move-in.

“It was the missing piece for people moving in,” said Dede Jones, Coordinator of Homeless Response for the City of Sarasota.

Resurrection House’s role in the “Floor No More” program is to purchase and provide these household items at move-in, which can be a huge undertaking. Over the past year, Resurrection House has partnered with a local women’s ministry, called Soul Sisters, who does the shopping and delivery of these items to the newly housed person.

“I absolutely love that these in-need people are getting off the street and we get to sprinkle them with extra love by buying all the things they need to get started,” said Anne Ayres, one of the Soul Sister volunteers.

These household items are hand-selected by the H.O.T. case managers and are unique to each client’s housing situation.

Thanks to the Soul Sister volunteers who gather extra details like color preferences, the individual can feel right at home immediately. “The Soul Sister crew has put more of a personal touch to it,” Dede said.

Anne finds every client and move-in is unique and special. She remembers one soon-to-be resident who was so grateful, that he even gave things back that he knew he couldn’t use, so that the next person could benefit from them.

“Our ministry is grateful to help out in this small way knowing what a big impact housing can have in helping someone get back on their feet” Anne said.