SI Pizzeria Owner Says Feeding Migrants is What the Lord Calls Him to Do

Like many new restaurant owners, Sebastian Bongiovanni proudly displays $20 bills signed by customers wishing him good luck with his eatery, Verde’s Pizza and Pasta on Victory Boulevard. But Bongiovanni has something else on his wall — something you don’t usually see.

Florida’s Affordable Housing Crunch Is Now Even Worse

Since the day after Hurricane Ian made landfall, Vivian Pelham and her husband have been living out of a Red Cross shelter set up in a former healthcare clinic in Wauchula. As of Oct. 6, she hadn’t gone back to their mobile home, fearful of what she might find. 

Local Catholic Charities Unit Offers Aid to Hurricane-Stricken Floridians

By mid-morning Oct. 4, one week after Hurricane Ian made landfall, there was a line of cars wrapped around the vast San Pedro Catholic Church parking lot and down the adjacent street, waiting their turn to get water bottles, bags of ice, and tarps loaded into their trunks to bring back home. 

Lack of Insurance Hampers Efforts To Rebuild For Many Survivors

Looking around at fallen tree limbs and brush littered throughout her yard, Elizabeth Reyes couldn’t help but notice that the usual natural sounds of birds overhead were gone, replaced by the sounds of machinery used for power and clean-up after Hurricane Ian.