HOLIDAY, Fla. — Metropolitan Ministries is expanding its impact in Pasco County with a significant addition to its existing campus in Holiday.
The $21 million project introduces a new early learning center, a family support center, and wraparound services designed to help families maintain stability before they face homelessness.
WATCH: Metropolitan Ministries’ Pasco expansion offers new programs to keep families off the streets
Leona Wells, managing director of the Pasco campus, says the expansion addresses multiple barriers families face, including access to childcare.
“We know that childcare is the number one barrier to a family being self-sufficient,” she said.
The center’s expansion will enable it to provide financial literacy classes, utility assistance, job readiness programs, and other support services to help families maintain self-sufficiency.
The campus already houses 48 families, serving more than 100 children, and the new learning center adds nine classrooms, providing early education to more than 100 additional children annually.
Wells says the nonprofit’s work is crucial in a county where families are increasingly squeezed by rising costs and stagnant wages. Last year, more than 8,000 families came through the Pasco center’s doors, which underscores the growing need for preventive services.
The expansion directly supports Pasco County’s goal of making homelessness “rare, short-lived, and never repeated.”
“People are so close to the line at this stage in this economy that it is critical that we walk alongside folks and keep them in their homes,” Wells said.
The public will get its first look at the new campus during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, October 22, but families are already beginning to benefit from the expanded programs and services.
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