How plans for $300M West Tampa development quietly squeezed out a center serving families in need
Hillsborough Co. Public Schools closed a center serving families in need after the city of Tampa severed an agreement to make room for the Rome Yard development.
For more than a decade of the 30-plus years Project LINK has been serving vulnerable students and families through a partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools, home has been a small portable alongside other groups on a sliver of land next to Just Elementary School in West Tampa.
Serving students Just Full Service Center's storied mission
"Weekly, we'll say we serve about 50 families,” Tina Young, CEO of Project LINK, said. They might come in for help with a referral because they’re homeless or need a helping hand.
Young: “They may need clothing, Pampers, help with tutoring..."
10 Investigates: "That's big."
Young: "It is. It is. We have a lot of families that are homeless in this district and families that are struggling across the board.”
These families would often come to the portable, known as the “Just Full Service Center,” for help. In addition to Project LINK, other groups offered services like counseling, financial literacy workshops, childcare support and mentorship for at-risk youth.
"We have single mothers that are working two jobs. Children have to go home and help with their siblings...they need support,” Young said.
10 Investigates: "And we see that when families don't have that support, the children suffer."
Young: "The children are suffering. And it's showing up in the classrooms. Children are fighting each other, bullying, their grades are suffering social skills are suffering. And we see it through, you know, the fighting, suspensions.”
Records show this school year alone, there have been at least 10,000 suspensions.
"When they're not in school, then they're out, you know, participating in mischief,” Young said. “So, we all benefit when we have children in school being productive, doing well."
However, the Full Service Center’s mission hit a roadblock in 2021 when the district told Young they were closing the portable.
Displaced Little communication left groups with questions, few answers
"We were told we were going to be relocated and that was it,” she said.
At a recent school board workshop, 10 Investigates asked Deputy Superintendent of Operations Chris Farkas why the district moved the resource.
"We were notified by the city,” he said. “Our Growth Management Department was actually notified that, 'Hey, we need to move these portables because they are on city land."
But 10 Investigates has gotten conflicting stories from the city about the reason why. In a 2023 email, a spokesperson said, "The city did not receive a request to renew or continue the lease."
That wasn’t necessary.
10 Investigates got a copy of the lease that shows the agreement, signed in 2009, doesn't expire for 25 years. Either party can terminate the lease with one-year notice, but the school district closed the Just Full Service Center less than 12 months after an email showed the city asking how soon the land could be cleared.
It also shows plans for a multi-million dollar development were the real reason the city wanted the land back from the district.
For years, the city has been itching to redevelop the now-vacant Rome Yard it considered to be 18 acres of prime real estate land along the Hillsborough River next to the now-closed Just Elementary.
In 2021, the "Related Urban Development Group" sealed a $300 million deal with the Tampa Housing Authority and the city of Tampa to turn the vacant land into a whole new community, with businesses, homes and recreation along the river.
It's part of a larger shift happening in West Tampa.
Transforming West Tampa How redevelopment is changing the community
"We're slowly seeing our community...the African-American community, deplete,” Hillsborough NAACP President Yvette Lewis told 10 Investigates in 2023.
In 2017, in the same area, the Tampa Housing Authority demolished the dilapidated North Boulevard Homes, displacing about 2,000 people. Not long after, the city closed a 5-acre little league baseball park...that's now part of the Rome Yard redevelopment plan. Then, less than a year after the school district closed the Just Full Service Center, the Hillsborough County School Board voted four to three to close Just Elementary.
Just, which was 82% Black and 12% Hispanic, had an "F" rating and struggled to retain staff.
"We can't recruit individuals to this school to serve children and that's a disservice to children,” then-superintendent Addison Davis said.
Others wonder if development drove the decision.
"I honestly believe that it's about the investors. It's not about the community,” Young said. "Our kids are being pushed aside."
As for Young, the district did move her agency inside of the school building now that students are gone from Just Elementary. However, the other groups in the Full Service Center that served families in need are no longer there.
"Did they take into consideration the impact this decision is having on the community at large? The children, the families. Or was it just about the dollar?” Young asked.
After months of questions, the city of Tampa provided a statement to 10 Investigates to offer clarification around the lease.
“The school district and City of Tampa mutually and collaboratively agreed to the lease termination. The city would have allowed the district to use the property longer if the district had requested that, just as Metropolitan Ministries continues to use another part of the Rome Yard property for its important community work.”
The district now says it will try to find space for the displaced groups if the need is still there.
"We always look to support people that are going to support our kids. So, if there's other projects that we can do and places we can host people, I'll be happy to try and provide those spots for them,” Farkas said.
Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. Like her on Facebook and follow her on X. You can also email her at emorrow@10tampabay.com.