Miami Dade Public Housing and Community Development will provide food assistance to extremely low-income residents of public housing

Miami Dade Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD) has been offering on-site assistance to its residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

PHCD will now assist public housing families who are most vulnerable. Those public housing households with extremely low income, meaning earning no more than 30 percent of Area Median Income, will be receiving grocery gift cards that should assist with food purchases for a period of two months.  

For a public housing family of four, the annual income limit is $25,750.   

The grocery gift cards will be redeemable at Winn-Dixie stores throughout Miami-Dade County. Similar to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) these cards will not be able to purchase items such as tobacco or lottery products.

This assistance will help close to 3,000 public housing households and 8,000 people. The value of the cards will be based on an allotment of $146 per person/per month for a two-month period or a total of $292 per person, which is in step with the SNAP program. The approximate total value of this food assistance program is $2.3 million.

Funds for the program are coming by way of  CARES Act allocations to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and was developed by PHCD at the direction of Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. The program was then approved by the Board of County Commissioners through an item sponsored by Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava on May 19, 2020.

"I want to thank Winn-Dixie for its partnership and our Board of County Commissioners for approving this essential relief for some of  those who have been hardest hit by this pandemic," said Mayor Gimenez. "This will put meals on the table to help ensure food security as our community works toward economic recovery."

PHCD Director Michael Liu stated, “We are fortunate that the CARES Act has provided us with the resources to help those public housing families in greatest need, and we thank Winn-Dixie for partnering with us in cutting a lot of red tape in order to make delivery of this help very timely.”