City of Tampa will host a Community Resource Fair

Tampa beercan building reflection — Hillsborough River in Downtown Tampa. By Seán Kinane.

This weekend the City of Tampa is hosting a “Community Resource Fair” to give residents information about city services and job opportunities.

WMNF spoke about it with Vanessa McCleary, Tampa’s Housing and Community Development manager.

“This fair is about all the different services that we think that people might be needing and not sure how to access. So, we’re bringing in quite a few nonprofits — over 20 different nonprofits — that provide services, from housing counseling to rental counseling, to how to find a rental unit, even job creation. We’ll have a mini job fair. We’ve got some folks that will actually be hiring. We’ll have landlords that are actually looking for tenants for their units. We’re trying to address a number of different needs through this Community Resource Fair.”

SK: You’ll have ways where residents can reduce their bills?

“Yes. We know that there is going to be an increase in the water rate. And so, the City is offering a Community Assistance Program. And we will actually be assisting folks with taking applications for that. We will have the stormwater program — if people have seen an increase in their tax bill due to the stormwater assessment — we’ll also be taking applications for that.

“The County Tax Collector will be there to talk about how someone can set up a payment plan to pay their taxes. We’ll have information from the Property Appraiser’s office. And there are a number of different exemptions that a lot of folks don’t know about that they will be talking about, and showing them how to apply for those exemptions.

“So, we’re reducing bills in that way along with the housing counselors. We’ll just tell people how they can do better with budgeting and some other tips for saving money.”

SK: Will there be a way for people there to figure out how to learn a new trade?

“Yes. So, we will also have CareerSource. We’ll be talking about the different trade training programs. We’ll actually have a workshop that will talk about resume writing, interviewing skills and how to find those different trade training programs to be able to sign up.”

The City of Tampa’s Community Resource Fair is at Young Middle Magnet School, 1807 East Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Tampa on Saturday (October 26, 2019) from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.