Developer Uses Money From Selling Homes to the Wealthy to House the Homeless

Editor’s note: This is the last of a two-part series on Florida “real estate rock czar” Frank McKinney who has plans to develop the land along Haywood County’s scenic Pigeon River with high-end spec homes.

Frank McKinney was at the top of his game selling high-end ocean front homes to the ultra wealthy in South Florida, but a single instance changed his life. He calls it his “tap” moment.

He’d just sold the most expensive spec home in the history of Palm Beach for $15 million, earning him an article in the The Miami Herald in the late 1990s. On the opposite page of the paper, however, was a story about a homeless man living under the girders of an interstate overpass and how the Caring Kitchen was serving meals in the area.

“I didn’t want to read that story. I wanted to read about me,” he said. “But the Holy Spirit had other plans.”

He was led to study the photo of the homeless man, who he said looked a lot like him. He then started thinking his life could have have taken a similar turn as the homeless person he was reading about.

“I asked myself, ‘What in the world did I do to land on the right side of the page when I was in juvie seven times,’” he said. “I could have been on the other side pretty easily.”

Even though he was at the top of his game in his career, McKinney said he found his life was hollow, and he was secretly very depressed.

“I was pretty materialistic, egotistic and had lost all my heart and soul,” he admitted.

He started volunteering at Caring Kitchen and began helping support the homeless, first through the Caring Kitchen and later through a foundation in Haiti.

His awakening also led to one of his best-selling books, “The Tap.”

Among other things, the book describes how to become sensitized to God’s call and be prepared for “tap moments.”

“The Tap is about accepting the inherent responsibility and gaining the confidence in your ability to handle the ‘more’ we all pray for, whether it’s more wealth, health, happiness, love, peace, friendship, or whatever the ‘more’ in your life represents,” McKinney said.

That “more” for McKinney was helping others.

“I’m a lineal thinker,” he said. “If I’m making money selling houses, I figured I should help provide homes for those who are homeless.”

He cites the gospel of Luke, 12:48, which says, “to whom much as been given, much will be expected.”

That’s what led to founding the Caring House Project Foundation in Haiti 21 years ago where McKinney is providing homes for the poorest of the poor. Since its inception, the foundation has built 30 self-sustaining villages which, according to its website, have provided “a self-sufficient existence for 13,600 desperately poor children and their families.”

His latest book, “Adversitology – Overcoming Adversity When You’re Hanging on by a Thread,” discusses his leukemia diagnosis and how he got through it and is beating cancer.

“I was given six months to live,” he said. “I told nobody about it except five people: my wife, my daughter, my mom, my spiritual adviser and my therapist,” he said. “I was going through adversity in my own way and I started writing this book.”

Each chapter starts with a letter in the word “adversity,” and the book is applicable to any sort of adversity a person is facing, whether physical, financial, emotional or spiritual, McKinney noted.

“If people follow the nine steps, it won’t help avoid adversity, but they will get through it quicker and in less pain,” he said.

All the profits from the book are donated to an orphanage in Haiti, and every book sale will provide 100 meals, he said.

A hand up

McKinney has written eight books and stops at homeless shelters or soup kitchens during his tours. He concluded the “Adversitology” book tour on April 16 where he stopped in 26 cities in 27 days.

He gives out tickets to those who will listen to him for 30 minutes and everyone wins something. There’s cash, gift cards, food or a copy of his book.

“These are low-barrier shelters where you can get in with blood dripping from a needle in your arm,” McKinney said. “I give them a choice. They can feed their habit, , get food to feed themselves or choose the book and feed their mind. We kept track at each stop, and 71% of the time, they chose the book. That blew me away.”