MIAMI – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be awarding Miami-Dade County $25,177,289 million to fund programs that provide services to homeless individuals and families.
The Check presentation will be made on January 25, 2008 at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, located at 111 N.W. 1st St., Room 18-3, at 10:30 AM.
The grant will be used for continuation funding of 78 programs offering transitional and permanent housing, a variety of supportive service programs and one new permanent supportive housing program. Specifically, it will support a homeless continuum of care of more than 5,500 beds. Miami-Dade’s programs received a combined record total of $25,177,289 million in new and renewal funding through U.S. HUD’s “Continuum of Care” homeless funding competition.
A new Miami-Dade project is unique in that it focuses on a low demand model allowing homeless individuals, who are service resistant, to engage in services at their own pace while provided with permanent supportive housing.
This design, which has been in place for over a decade, is now being designated to be used with a population which cycles in and out of jails, emergency rooms and mental health hospitals. This new program model design echoed the planning and recommendations of both the Homeless Trust and the Mayor’s Mental Health Task Force and has an 89% success rate.
“Once again Miami-Dade County has demonstrated that our comprehensive system of care for the homeless merits strong support by the federal government,” said Ronald L. Book, Chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. “The work of the Homeless Trust over the last 15 years has reduced the number of homeless people on the streets of our community from 8,000 to 1380, the lowest in our history. We thank U.S. HUD 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.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a member of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust Board 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 40% of the total funding allocated to organizations in the State of Florida.
