Campaign Outcomes

Through the leadership of the Homeless Trust, and the cooperation and the competence of other providers of services to persons who are homeless in Miami-Dade County, over the past 14 years:

The street homeless population of Miami-Dade County has been reduced by nearly 75%;
Nearly 6,000 beds have been developed for persons who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

One sub-population of homeless persons that continues to provide a challenge to all homeless-serving and other social service agencies includes persons who are considered chronically homeless. In their 2004-2010 Strategic Plan (adopted January 23, 2004), the Board of Directors of Camillus House refocused the long-range direction of the agency to:

become the primary provider of services to persons who are chronically homeless in Miami-Dade County; while
reaching out to establish partnerships with other human service agencies in this community, the State of Florida and nationwide to advance this goal.

In so doing, the Board set as its vision the elimination of chronic homelessness within seven years of opening its new Camillus House campus. At that time, Camillus staff estimated that the number of persons meeting the criteria of chronic homelessness was approximately 830.

A primary challenge to reducing the number of cases of chronic homelessness in Miami is the lack of a sufficient number of residential behavioral health treatment services, including programs that serve chronically homeless women and persons for whom Spanish is their primary language.

For the past several years, Camillus has been able to “graduate” each year one person for every treatment bed available for homeless persons with a mental illness or substance abuse problem. Based on this record, Camillus House expects to graduate approximately 120 persons from the expanded ISPA program, beginning in 2010-2011.

Expanded job training and placement services and expanded permanent housing options – both within Camillus House and through other local agencies – will enhance the likelihood of long-term recovery from homelessness of these persons. Based on the assumption that approximately 830 persons are chronically homeless in Miami, beginning in program year 2016-2017, the pool of persons who meet the definition for chronic homelessness should be exhausted. Meanwhile, other persons who have a disabling condition, but have not yet met the duration threshold for designation as chronically homeless (i.e., have not yet been homeless for a year or longer or not yet accumulated four significant episodes in three years), will have ready access to the expanded capacity at Camillus’ ISPA program.

Each of these projections includes allowances for movement in and out of Miami-Dade County of persons who meet the criteria to be designated as chronically homeless.

Other intermediate outcomes include:

increases in the number of permanent housing arrangements provided by Camillus either through Camillus-owned facilities, Camillus-partnered facilities, or community-based housing;
increases in the number of families for whom homelessness has been prevented; and
increases in the number of clients who secure and retain jobs paying a living wage or better.