On Thursday, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust announced Miami-Dade County as the first major urban area in Florida to bring a sustainable end to veteran homelessness.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson said, “I’m thrilled that Miami-Dade County and its many partners are joining a national movement to end veteran homelessness. Those who once wore our nation’s uniform deserve more than a life on the streets and we have no greater responsibility than to make certain they have a home they can call their own.”
The announcement came after Miami-Dade created a system and infrastructure to make veteran homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.
“This accomplishment was made possible through unprecedented collaboration between the Homeless Trust, Miami VA and a host of community partners. This is a commitment from our community leaders that no one who has served our country should be forced to sleep on the streets,” said Ronald L. Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
“This designation does not mean no veteran will ever become homeless in Miami-Dade, but that veterans who do experience homelessness will get the support they need to quickly obtain a permanent home.”
The effort to end veteran homelessness began in 2014 when local leaders visited the nation’s capital and joined U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs 25 Cities Initiative which was designed to intensify and integrate local efforts.
When Miami-Dade County began its collaborative effort, the annual count of sheltered and unsheltered persons uncovered 317 homeless veterans with nearly half of them unsheltered (142). By January 2018, that number had been cut in half to 120 homeless veterans, with only nine unsheltered.
Keys to success include:
- Strong coordination between all partners and stakeholders
- Strengthened efforts to identify, prioritize and match housing and services for veterans
- Improved data collection
- Using a Housing First orientation system-wide with the goal of providing quick access to permanent affordable or supportive housing without prerequisites
- Scaling up permanent housing resources to create a sustainable system of care for at-risk and homeless veterans
As a result, the number of homeless veterans connected with permanent housing in Miami-Dade each month is more than the number of newly entering homeless veterans.
Today, unsheltered veterans represent less than 1 percent of the total homeless population.