CARROLLWOOD, Fla. — A Hillsborough County nonprofit that helps families get back on their feet is turning to the community, as they need help of their own.
Stephanie Haile is passionate about helping people who are starting over. She started New Life Warehouse in 2020 — a nonprofit that collects furniture donations to give to people in need who are moving into new homes. Those helped include kids in foster care, people overcoming homelessness or even refugees from countries like Ukraine.
“People always think about them getting a place to live, but they don’t always think about what happens after that,” Haile said. “When they walk in to their new place, they’re really excited, but then they realize they have nothing in it.
“These are people really, right now in Tampa, laying on the floor, sitting on the floor, eating on the floor and that’s a problem.”
Over the past four years, Haile said New Life Warehouse has been able to help about 2,000 families. She said the need right now is huge, especially with the rising cost of rent.
“A lot of times, these moms want to go ahead and get their kids these beds and that’s great,” Haile said. “But then when it’s time to pay rent again, they’re back in the negative in their checking account and they can’t pay their rent.”
New Life Warehouse is now looking for a fresh start itself. The nonprofit currently shares space with Grace Family Church in Carrollwood at no cost. But the church sold a portion of its property and the new owners are taking over the warehouse — leaving New Life no choice but to move out.
“We use all of our money to buy beds and the items that we give to families,” Haile said. “We have a very low overhead because we’re all volunteers. Whenever we have that extra money, we buy the things that families need.”
Haile is now looking for 10,000 square-foot warehouse space so she and her volunteers can keep doing their work. While the future is uncertain, Haile said she is holding on to her faith and staying hopeful.
“We’ve seen all the amazing things that have already happened,” she said. “We’ve seen God work — we’ve physically seen these things happen that we just know that it’s going to work out.”
New Life Warehouse officially has until May 3 to vacate their current space. Haile said they plan to start the move-out process in April and she hopes to have a new location by then.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – Shelters across the country have dealt with an increase in pets surrendered after the pandemic, and with the overflow, the importance of foster parents for animals has grown.
What You Need To Know
- Foster parents have become important to helping animals find new homes
- Marisa Burntitus is an animal foster parent in Berkshire County
- There’s a process people have to go through before being approved to be able to foster dogs
- Burntitus plans to keep finding homes to as many dogs as she can
Marisa Burntitus is fosters dogs in Berkshire County, making sure dogs can get a new life. Kerey, her current foster, came from Perfect Pets Rescue in Georgia, where they save dogs and cats from high-kill shelters in the South and transfer them to their fosters based in New York.
“They rescue them and they ship them up here to us, and I pick them up out in Kingston, and then I essentially give them a home rather than living in a pound until they find their forever home,” Burntitus said.
Burntitus takes care of dogs like Kerey, making sure they have what’s needed to keep them healthy and safe until adopted. She has fostered four dogs in the past two months.
There’s a process Burntitus had to go through before being able to foster dogs.
“To be a foster it’s like adopting a dog,” she said. “You’ll fill out an application, they check your vet references and your personal references, just to make sure you’ll be a good home for the dog , and then you’re approved. And we are all in a Facebook group together, we chat about the dogs, figure out transports, pickups, things like that, and it’s really a great community of support and of dog lovers, of people who just want to help basically.”
Burntitus said Kerey is great with people and cats, and is ready to find his new family.
“He is very loyal, very loving, he loves to snuggle,” she said. “He did great on a walk yesterday, he does well on his leash. He’s definitely doing great with potty training and learning to go outside and he loves hanging out with us at night. He’ll lay on the couch with us, he’ll kinda snuggle and hang out.”
Burntitus plans to keep finding homes to as many dogs as she can.
The need for foster homes for dog’s is always there, and anyone interested in signing up to volunteer or wanting to adopt a pet can check out Perfect Pets Rescue for more information.