A Brief History and Significant Milestones

At a time when many cities have struggled to find solutions to the problem of homelessness, a remarkable story has unfolded here in Miami-Dade County. Community Partnership for Homeless, a public-private partnership with the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, has developed a national model for helping homeless individuals and families regain self-sufficiency.

The Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan is a creative and innovative alternative to the soup kitchen approach. It deals with root causes of the problem with a three-phase continuum-of-care program (temporary, primary and advanced) to help the homeless return to society’s mainstream. The Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan is working! The “on the street” homeless population in our community has been reduced by 83 percent since 1993. Very few communities in America can speak of a reduced homeless population.

A key is the Homeless Assistance Center concept – a one-stop temporary care entry point that provides not just food and shelter but case management, health care, daycare, job training and other assistance from a variety of social services agencies under one roof. Community Partnership opened one such center in downtown Miami in 1995 and a second one the site of the former Homestead Air Force Base in South Miami-Dade in October 1998.

Since the first center opened nearly 12 years ago, 61.26 percent of the approximately 66,709 admissions who have entered have been successfully outplaced by the two centers – a rate which is more than double the 25 percent we had been told by experienced hands in this field we might reasonably expect.

The Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan has been identified as a national model. This confirmation has come from former U.S. Secretary of Housing, Mel Martinez as well as the last two governors from the State of Florida. The Plan has been more tangibly recognized with significant federal grants. These grants, although not funding Community Partnership directly, help expand the continuum-of-care agencies that assist the homeless after they leave the assistance centers.

A strong public-private partnership is in the place and working smoothly. Locally controlled tax revenues have been committed for 35 years, and a generous private sector has already provided approximately $36 million in cash and another $8.8 million in in-kind gifts. We are told this is more private funding for homeless programs than any other American city has received in recent years.

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NOTE: For a complete history of the organization, please read “Community Partnership for Homeless – A Narrated History,” by Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., founding Chairman. The complete story is captured in a series of recorded interviews conducted as an oral history project by Dennis P. Kendrick.