MIAMI – Through a competitive grant process, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded Miami-Dade County $25,647,568 million to fund programs that provide services to homeless individuals and families.
The grant will be used for continuation funding of 80 programs offering transitional and permanent housing, and a variety of supportive service programs. Specifically, it will support a homeless continuum of care of over 5,800 beds. Miami-Dade’s programs received a combined record total of $25,647,568 million in funding through U.S. HUD’s “Continuum of Care” homeless funding competition.
“Once again Miami-Dade County has demonstrated that our comprehensive system of care for the homeless merits strong support by the federal government. The work of the Homeless Trust over the last 16 years has reduced the number of homeless people on the streets of our community from 8,000 to less than 1,000 the lowest in our history” said Ronald L. Book, Chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. “We thank U.S. HUD, our partners, for helping us end homelessness in Miami-Dade County and throughout America. Our partnership with U.S. HUD is a cornerstone of our work in this community.”
Member of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust Board, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez declared, “This record level of funding represents a continued commitment on behalf of U.S. HUD to help communities that have helped themselves. We are fortunate to have these additional funds to help these needy families and individuals; and grateful to HUD for their collaboration in addressing those most in need.”
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust administers the majority of these federal funds, as well as the unique local food and beverage tax for homelessness. In addition to serving as a policy and coordinating body for homeless services in the County, the Trust also prepares the annual federal application for funding, following community input and the identification of service and housing gaps and needs.
Miami-Dade County is eligible to receive up to $12 million in funding through the national competition, which includes funding requests for both new projects and for continuation funding for existing programs. Miami-Dade’s funding represents 35% of the total funding allocated to organizations in the State of Florida.
