Thousands of faith leaders in Pinellas call on local officials to tackle pressing community problems

Clergy and Faith Leaders demand that officials St. Petersburg and Clearwater address the lack of affordable housing, unnecessary arrests for minor driving offenses, and water quality issues on out community.

WHAT:          FAST Nehemiah Action Assembly

WHEN:          Tuesday, April 30th at 7 p.m.

FAST leaders and clergy will be available to speak to media starting at 6:30 p.m.

WHERE:       First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg, 1900 Gandy Blvd N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL. – Over 2,000 community members will gather to push county and local officials to take action on pressing community problems. Last fall, local congregations held over 75 small group listening sessions and heard from hundreds of community members about the problems their families were facing. “Over and over again, three concerns kept coming up: the lack of affordable housing, problems with Red Tide, and arrests for minor mistakes,” said Rev. Jean Cooley, “Over the last 6 months, we’ve met with dozens of experts and officials to narrow down concrete solutions that would help our community.”

In those 75 small group listening sessions, FAST heard hundreds of stories about the burden of finding affordable housing in the City of St. Petersburg, as well as stories of families having to leave the county altogether because housing here is too expensive. “We have so many people in our congregation that have lived in St. Petersburg their whole lives that are now struggling to stay here. Teachers, hospital workers…people working full time at decent jobs. They just can’t afford the high cost of rent,” said Rev. Robert Ward, of Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist. 

This is why FAST has been focusing on more affordable housing for the City of St. Petersburg. FAST has been pushing Mayor Ken Welch to commit to a goal of 5000 new units of affordable housing for families making 80% AMI by the end of 2026. They pray that Mayor Welch will address community members and respond to their concerns at the Nehemiah Action.

Community members are also pushing for the city of Clearwater to include green stormwater infrastructure in new and redeveloped projects to mitigate the effects of red tide, and for police chiefs in Clearwater and St. Pete to make commitments to stop unnecessary arrests for non-dangerous driving offenses.

This assembly is organized by FAST: Faith and Action for Strength Together, a group of 52 diverse religious congregations that work together to address issues of poverty and injustice in Pinellas County.