Every Monday for the past decade, volunteers with Tent City Helpers have fanned out to six locations across Martin County, delivering hot meals, groceries, camping supplies and hygiene products to people experiencing homelessness.
"Tent City Helpers has been going on for 10 years," said Gail Harvey, president of the nonprofit. "We are a delivery service... Our mission is to help the unhoused of Martin County and to advocate for affordable housing, a shelter of some sort for our unhoused folks in Martin County."
The organization runs entirely on volunteer labor and community donations — no government funding, no office, no paid overhead. Harvey said that lean structure is intentional, and it gives the group flexibility that a traditional charity might not have.
"We don't have an office. We don't have Wi-Fi we pay for," Harvey said. The group did pay for a single storage unit until recently, when the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council stepped in to cover that cost as well.
Harvey said Tent City Helpers has grown a following of nearly 4,000 people on Facebook — people she describes as caring and compassionate residents who want the county to do more. She said that support stands in contrast to what she believes is the attitude of some county leaders.
"I think the county commissioners right now have the attitude that their constituents don't want anything done, and I think that we're showing that there's lots of people out there," Harvey said.
Harvey said one county commissioner told her Stuart has a reputation as "the selfish capital of the world" — a characterization she strongly disputes.
"This is a person that's supposed to be representing Martin County people, and I don't think that is the way Martin Countians are," said Harvey, who grew up in Jensen Beach. "People care about unhoused people. They don't know what to do, and that's why we need to have local government involved."
Harvey said one of the group's biggest challenges is public perception of who is actually homeless in Martin County.
"About 60 percent of all the unhoused folks we run into are working, and they don't understand that," Harvey said.
She added that many people picture "the one guy they see outside a liquor store panhandling" as representative of the county's homeless population, when in reality the group serves families and a growing number of seniors.
Harvey pointed to a HUD report from last year showing seniors and families are the fastest-growing groups among people experiencing homelessness — a trend she said is being driven by rising housing costs and homeowners insurance premiums.
"When you're on a fixed income, something's got to give, and we're finding more and more seniors that are being unhoused," she said.
Harvey said the reasons people end up unhoused vary widely — mental health struggles, addiction, grief and loss among them.
"I have a widower that's so sad because his wife died, and it's like, oh, he really loved her that much that it put him in a position where he's unable to function," Harvey said. "There's just so many different stories out there, and we all should be showing some care and compassion."
Despite the challenges, Harvey said the response from the community has been largely positive. The group regularly has more volunteers offering to help than it can accommodate, and it has been able to sustain its work through donations, Giving Tuesday campaigns and support from organizations like the Alexander Foundation — without ever holding a formal fundraiser.
Tent City Helpers can be reached through its website, www.tentcityhelpers.com or on Facebook.