The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and the Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan have been hailed as national models (and "Best Practice") in 1998 for their progressive approach to addressing homelessness.

A one-of-a-kind dedicated source of funding, as well as a unique public-private partnership, have drawn the attention and funding of government and private sector agencies. The implementation of the local continuum of care has resulted in major accomplishments since the Board's inception in 1993.

Among those most notable are the following:

• Developed a coordinated outreach, assessment and placement process for homeless persons accessing homeless housing and services in Miami-Dade County.
• Developed and expanded a coordinated system of care that includes all three phases of housing (emergency, transitional and permanent) along with an array of supportive services, consistent with the Miami-Dade Community Homeless Plan:

Additional transitional and permanent housing units are in the pipeline.

• Hailed as a "National Model" and "Best Practice" (1998) for addressing homelessness
• Secured more that $193 million in U.S. HUD funding, including a $15 million demonstration, HUD Initiatives grant in 1994
• Secured more than $1.3 million in Department of Corrections funding for the Homeless Assessment Referral and Tracking (HART) program for non-violent bondable offenders (funding was discontinued in 2001)
• Secured a one-time $500,000 award from the State of Florida Department of Children and Families for the construction of a day care center at the Homeless Assistance Center in South Dade
• Secured more than $2 million in State funding since 1998 for homeless coordination and prevention services, housing and services for the mentally ill, and match funding.
• Secured more than $1.4 million in State funding for homeless housing development.
• Secured more than $62 million in private-sector funds (includes $36 million in cash contributions, $16 million in endowment and $10 million in-kind) through a public/private partnership.  A unique contractual relationship with the Community Partnership for the Homeless, Inc., to site, build and operate two homeless assistance centers also included a fundraising requirement of $8.5 million in private-sector funds.  This goal has been surpassed and the partnership has been hailed a national model and success by U.S. HUD
• Collected more than $97 million in food and beverage tax proceeds
• Received a set-aside of $11 million in HOME/CDBG funds for homeless capital projects
• Secured $1,169,821 in municipal contributions for the Short Term Plan
• Secured $1.3 million in Department of Labor funding to provide housing and services to hard-to-serve TANF recipients; and
• Received the 1996 National Association of Counties (NACO) Achievement Award for the Continuum of Care.