Trust approves use of $5 million Bezos grant for rapid rehousing; board authorizes contracting with Chapman Partnership and seeks $1.5M state and federal match

The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust unanimously approved using a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Family Foundation for rapid rehousing assistance targeted to families with minor children and authorized staff to contract with Chapman Partnership to administer the program.

Vicky, the Trust'executive director, told the board $3 million of the grant is set aside for rapid rehousing exclusively for families with minor children and said the Trust currently counts 287 families with minor children in temporary, time-limited settings. She reported the system currently has 43 chronically homeless families, 97 families with at least one household member with a disability, and 73 large families with three or more children.

Vicky said Chapman Partnership submitted a proposal to administer the rehousing assistance and related system-support activities, and staff recommended contracting with Chapman to "support the COC's family assessment process, lead at least monthly family focused by-name list meetings on behalf of the COC, and regularly track system performance, including length of time homeless, successful exits and retention." The board approved the contract authorization following a motion by the vice chair; the motion was seconded and adopted by voice vote. For the record, board member Carlos Fernandez Guzman recused himself because of his prior affiliation with Chapman Partnership; the recusal was noted during the vote.

The Trust also approved adding a state legislative priority to seek a $1.5 million special appropriation to match the Bezos funds for acquisition and renovation of family housing. The board approved staff'recommended federal priorities aimed at preserving and increasing HUD funding (Trust staff noted the county's HUD award exceeds $60 million) and supporting continued vouchers, and separately authorized submitting a $1.5 million community project funding (earmark) request to help purchase family housing.

Board members emphasized that the Bezos funding is intended to serve the entire Continuum of Care (CoC), not only Chapman Partnership clients; Vicky said Chapman will administer continuum-wide services as proposed. "This is money to serve the entire continuum and all the families within the continuum, not just the families at Chapman," a Trust member said. The motions to approve both the state legislative priority and the federal earmark request passed by voice vote.

The board asked staff to track performance metrics required by the Bezos grant application and to report back on deployment timelines and outcomes.