We put our names and stuff like that out there because I'd be out there sleeping in the street, and they don't do nothing. They just get our names, and they don't put us in shelter. The only time that they did shelter us—
Can you say they, the green shirts?
Yes, correct. The green shirts and other people that work and try to say that they're going to help us. They don't. The only time I did get help was the ninth day of the cold weather, I would like to say. I think Camilo House, but then they threw us out again for the 90s, and that was it.
All right. Well, again, I appreciate you being here. Don't go anywhere. Have a seat. We're going to have someone from the staff talk to you and see what we can do. Thank you so much. Okay. Anybody else with a reasonable opportunity to be heard? Good morning. I know this gentleman.
Yes. Hello, Judge Leifman. Pleasure. David Peary, 721 Northeast. Thank you. 121st Street, North Miami, Florida. I just want to make a couple of brief remarks, just to renew on the record a remark that I made, I think, about two months ago, that's what's critically, vitally needed in terms of these meetings. What's missing from this agenda is a report by the people who are actually homeless. I note that we have the M Network, public relations, Chapman Partnership, treasurer, and executive director. These are all very necessary reports. But it is vital, it is critical, that this organization hear from the people that actually serves, the people who are impacted by the policies. And one area that it could have made a difference in terms of receiving reports from the people who are actually experiencing homelessness is the latest PIT count. You would want to hear from people who are actually sleeping on the streets, and maybe they would inform you, especially during these cold weather nights, as to where folks are, okay? Because the PIT count is usually taken during the coldest day of the month, or excuse me, the coldest day of the year. So I just want to renew my plea, please. We have a lived experience working group. Let's see if we can support them and have them actually make reports every month.
I think that's a very helpful idea, and I will bring it up to the chair. Thank you. All right. Anybody else like to make any comments? Okay. With that, the opportunity for public to be heard is now closed. I would like a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. So moved. We've got a second. Any comments, questions, or changes? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. Hearing none, the minutes are approved. Thank you so much. Okay, new business. When are we going to do the poster?
Perfect.
Okay.
Yeah, these folks.
Okay. Well, even though I never like when Mr. Book is not here, this is the one meeting I'm glad he's late, because I really particularly enjoy participating in this part of our meeting. This is one of the most meaningful things that we do. This is a wonderful project. This is a project that we have been doing for many, many years, and it's part of the Miami-Dade County Public School Project Upstart in the Bass Museum, and we thank the Bass Museum for their incredible support of this. And this is our annual poster and essay contest awards event. And so I'm going to ask some of our members to please join me in the well while we make these presentations and really honor the students and the teachers that are here that have made just a phenomenal, phenomenal contribution. And if Director Burgos would please join me in the well, representing the mayor today. Also, I believe we have representatives from Commissioner Bastion and Gilbert here today. If they could join me as well. Assistant Superintendent Gutierrez, if you would join me as well. And Kylie Crook from the Bass Museum, who was part of our judging panel and has really been phenomenal. And just so people know, the art that you're going to see today is going to be displayed at the Bass Museum on May 31st. It's a wonderful family day, museum day. It's free, and we really encourage you and people you know to please come on out on the 31st. Okay, I'm going to come on down. Sure, please.
Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to – I'm trying to channel my boss here and just honor and uplift some of our young leaders who have done such amazing work here. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to read some of these essays. I took some time to read. I just wanted to read a couple of excerpts from here. So one says here, quote, watching and talking about someone who's experiencing homelessness, they had the opportunity to observe. They said, quote, watching him reminded me that hope does not always come in big moments. Sometimes hope is simply having a place where you feel safe enough to keep trying. And, quote, the next one I wanted to read was, quote, a student graduates not suddenly because their life became easier, but because people made sure that they were not facing it alone. Here, hope becomes something solid to stand on. End quote. And the final one I wanted to read was, another way hope is extended through support and service programs, like Project Upstart, help students by providing school supplies, transportation, tutoring, and access to basic needs. These services help students stay focused on their education instead of worrying about where they will sleep or how they'll get to school. Education gives homeless youth hope because it opens doors to better opportunities and a more stable future. I know we talk about these things all the time because it's the nature of our work, but understand how impressive it is for children. These are children writing these essays to speak so poignantly and directly about the nature of homelessness and, more importantly, what happens when the system works, when we are able to provide services to people who need it in our county the most. So I just wanted to uplift that on the behalf of my commissioner. Congratulations. I've seen some of the artwork. Very impressive. I could absolutely never draw as well as these young people. And to the young leaders who have written so eloquently about this issue, thank you so much for standing up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. For those that are not aware of the history of the project, the poster and essay contest was really designed to educate young students, but I think it's also equally important designed to educate all of us about people experiencing homelessness and instill sensitivity and compassion among all of us. And this happened, and we started this project after the brutal murder of Norris Gaynor in January of 2006. That was a homeless man. I remember vividly when this happened. And his murder was actually committed by three teenagers. And so the idea was to start to do a better job educating the entire community, that these are people with all kinds of special needs. They're members of our families. They're members of our community. And it's just so important that we do our best to help this population thrive and have lives of hope and opportunity. And this does a wonderful job expressing our sentiments about this issue. So thank you. And I'm going to now go down and make the presentation. Thank you all. Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Thank you. Thank you. The theme of the project this year is hope in youth homelessness. And so the essays and the art are reflective. I want to particularly thank the teachers who have really stepped up. And we're going to make a special presentation to a particular teacher who really has committed herself to working on this issue for decades. And many of her students have been winners. And it just shows that when you have that kind of commitment from a teacher, how it really translates itself to the students. And it just shows you the wonderful impact our teachers have and how we need to honor them for the incredible commitment that they make to all of us. So a little housekeeping. We want all of you to know that the framed art will be permanently set at the new navigation center, which is now in the final stages of completion, and will provide another 80 beds for unsheltered individuals. We hope that that item will be resolved very soon, and we can get the facility open. The center welcomes people who might be hesitant to go to traditional shelters, since it has very few barriers for entry, and it has very flexible services, and it even has space for pets, which we know is very, very important for everything we do. After the awards ceremony, please see Lisa. Where did you go, Lisa? Lisa's waving. Lisa represents our public relations firm, and they do an amazing job not just with this project but projects throughout the year. And so she's helping us coordinate today, so make sure that you see Lisa after you come up because we want to take pictures. And equally important, we want to make sure you receive your cash prizes. And that is compliments of the Homeless Trust Private Sector Partner Chapman Partnership. Thank you very much. We appreciate you so very, very much, all of you, and the commitment that you make to our community. So let's get started. I want to start with our elementary schools. I was looking at this and reading it as well last night, and I was like, wow, third grade. I don't think I was doing anything important in third grade. I wonder how I became a judge since I wasn't doing anything in third grade. But what a great start for these kids, and we really couldn't be more proud of these children. So first I want to call up Joel Monroy Rodriguez from Matter Academy Kiwanis. Okay. Well, I'm going to introduce. I knew the teacher wasn't going to be here, but he's with Matter Academy. So Vanna White is going to help us out here. And we congratulate Joel and his teacher, Elizabeth Pino, who we knew wasn't going to be here, but I guess Joel's not here as well. Thank you. Hopefully our first place winner is here, and that's Grayson Copeland. Oh, my gosh. Hey, Grayson. Grayson's in the fourth grade. Congratulations. Can I shake your hand? Thank you. And you look so handsome. Do you want me to help you lift that a minute? I don't want you to be blocked. I'm going to lift that a little higher.
There you go. I want you to just pan around the sides. Yeah, you can take a couple of seconds back, sir. She wants to take the picture. Do me a favor. Just step back a little bit. A little bit more. All right. By the time we move everything, it's going to be there. That's fine.
All right.
Okay. So let's let her take the picture first. Did you come right here? Come right here. Take the picture. Big smile right here. All right. So come on this side for me. So I can picture in the picture. Big smiles. Big smiles. Bless you. One, two. All right. We're going to do that one over. I'm going to move all the stuff in the back, but we're going to continue with the program. All right.
One, two. I'm going to have one over here.
We're going to keep going. Okay. All right.
All right. Well, Grayson, congratulations again. You guys did an amazing job. We're so proud of you. Grayson is a student at Bridge Prep Academy in Greater Miami. I don't know if his teacher, Lorenzo Arcan, is here. I guess he didn't make it, but we want to thank Lorenzo also for his wonderful support. But I want to particularly thank the family for the great support that you're giving Grayson, and what a fine young man, and what a sweetheart. So thank you. Congratulations. You're welcome. All right. So now we're going to move on to our middle school students, and this is actually the first time that this has ever happened. We have one school that won first, second, and third place for the middle school. So one middle school, which just shows this amazing commitment, and I take particular pride in announcing this because the winners, A, are under the direction of the teacher, Lillian Gonzalez, and she's at Lawton Childs Middle School. And the reason I take such pride is because Lawton Child appointed me to the bench. And I will tell you, he's no longer with us, but he would be incredibly proud of a project like this. He had a heart of gold. Projects like this meant the world to him. And so to the winning students, congratulations, and thank all of you for your incredible commitment. So the third place winner is Emily Brito. She is in seventh grade. Congratulations. Come on up.
A little bit. Perfect. Come back just a little bit more. Perfect. Yes. So let's take one step backwards. Perfect. Thank you. Here I am. Thank you. Let's look right here.
This is my first clerk of the court. Always the best.
Always the best, sir. Always the best. Let's go right here. Big smiles. One, two. Thank you so very much. Congratulations.
All right. We actually had a tie for third place, which is also unique. Whoops. Sorry. Wrong one. Not quite yet. Ella Mendez, eighth grade, second place winner. I was going to say, you look a little, I don't know about this one. Her mom's here? Where's her mom? Come on up, mom. Where's her mom? Oh, here she comes. Are you here with them, sir?
Hold it for you. It's not a problem. I'll hold it. All right. I'm sorry. Can we have one person go this way? Come over here. Perfect. Balance it out. Look right here. All right. Let's go right here. Big smiles. Big smiles. One, two.
Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right. And our first place winner, who's a sixth grader, is Brianna Garcia-Puentes. Congratulations. It's kind of hard to shake hands. Stay with me.
Papa?
No, Papa.
Who is?
Yeah. I'm here. I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. All right.
Before I start, let's look at the cell phones, video. Are you going here? Okay. Let's go right here. Big smiles. Big smiles. Hold on one second. Sorry about that. Oh, the video president is there. All right. Big smiles. Big smiles. One, two. Thank you so very much.
Okay. So for our high school winners, they would come on up. This is actually unique as well. We had a tie for third place. And so our two third place winners, we have Samantha Maza in the 10th grade from J.C. Bermudez Doral Senior High, also a really good guy, Commissioner Bermudez. I don't know if the teacher was able to make it, Daniel Vinat. And the other third place winner is Laura Montez, a 10th grader, who is now at Mast Academy, but completed her artwork under her teacher at the time, Philip Sores Desa. who teaches at Matt or Brickell. Okay.
Can I just take a step back, please? A little bit farther back. Just as fast. We like each other. Okay. Come right here, man. Take the picture. Make sure you back up just a tad. Move up. Move up. Right there. Perfect. Give him two more, two more, two more, two more, two more, two more. All right. Perfect. Okay. Let's go right here. It's a lively bunch. Macaroni-an. Oh, y'all don't like macaroni-an? I like picadillo, but... All right. Thank you. All right.
Our second place winner is Violet Roig. She is in the 12th grade. She's at the School of International Education, and her teacher is Cisabel Farnaris. Are they here? Oh, no. Let me show the art. Okay. Vanna White will show the art anyway.
Yeah, you got to pull the pictures. I'm not white.
We know better.
Should we do the same thing if everybody is coming around? Give them the same acknowledgement? Smile. Give two. Thank you. Our first place winner is Isaiah Lewis.
He is in the 10th grade, and he's back again because he won first place last year as well, which is really remarkable. He is a student at Miami Northwestern Senior High School. His teacher is Elisir Castro. Are they here? Come on up.
All right. So we're going to step back.
I'm trying to make it.
Okay. Okay. I see you. I see you. He's a chef at Disney, so that's important. Oh, it's not on. It's not on. Okay. You got it? You took a picture? All right. Perfect. All right. Let's go right here. Big smile. Big smiles. I'm sorry about that. Thank you so very much.
Now we would like to turn our attention to our essay winners, and we have two runner-ups and one winner. Our runner-ups are both in the 12th grade, both seniors. The first, I don't think he is here, is Addison Runsheimer. He's at Cushman School, and his teacher is Ann Lang. I don't know if Miss Lang. Oh, thank you for coming up. Sure. Let's take a picture. And please congratulate our attention. And we have another runner-up. We can do them, I guess, at the same time. Sophia Marrero from G. Holmes Braddock, and her teacher is Davey Tobin.
Want to take a step back, please? Perfect. You have to smile. All right. One, two. Thank you. Let's go one more. Oh, teacher. Oh, sure. That's right. Here's your friend. Thank you.
Sorry.
Yay!
Perfect. Give me one quick film here. One step back. All right. Perfect. All right. Okay. We're kind of lopsided, but can you just make a word right here? Yes. Perfect. Thank you so very much. Let's go right here. Big smile. Big smile. One, two. Macaroni in. All right. Thank you, guys. Hold on. One more.
Okay. And the first place winner is Danny Lynn Mercado, also from G. Holmes Braddock. And the teacher is Davey Tobin. It's Miss Ann. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Let's get some pictures. Come on in.
Yeah. I want to have you on a picture. All right. Everyone do me a favor. Let's step back. All right. Thank you. One, two.
One, two.
Especially the one in Hialeah. One, two. Don't move. And last but not least, one, two, and three. Thank you.
So I'm going to let her teacher, Miss Tobin, read her essay, and then I want to talk about Miss Tobin as well.
So, guys. Good morning. She's the author. Amazing. I first noticed him sitting on the steps outside the library after school. He looked about my age, maybe a little older, with a backpack beside him and a notebook in his hands. At first, I assumed he was just waiting for somebody. But as the days passed, he was always there, rain or shine. After school, he stayed in the same place. That was when I realized he might be homeless. One afternoon, our teacher talked about youth homelessness in class. She explained how many young people lose their homes because of family problems, poverty, or situations they cannot control. As she spoke, I couldn't stop thinking about the boy outside the library. I wondered how someone so young could be carrying so much responsibility and uncertainty. A few days later, I saw him talking to a school counselor near the entrance. He looked nervous but hopeful. That moment changed how I saw homelessness. It wasn't just about having a place to sleep. It was about trying to survive while still holding on to dreams. He still came to the library every day, not just to rest, but to study, write, and stay connected to school. Education seemed to be his anchor. Over time, I learned that the library was the safe space for him. It was warm, quiet, and filled with resources. He used the computers to work on assignments and the books to escape reality for a while. Watching him reminded me that hope does not always come in big moments. Sometimes, hope is simply having a place where you feel safe enough to keep trying. What stood out the most was how supportive adults made a difference. Teachers, counselors, and community workers treated him with respect, not judgment. They helped him stay enrolled in school and connected him to programs that offered stability. Because of that support, he didn't give up. Instead, he kept showing up, believing his situation was temporary. By the end of the school year, I didn't see him on the library steps anymore. Later, I found out he had moved into a youth housing program and was preparing to graduate. His journey wasn't easy, but he never stopped believing in himself. His story showed me that hope can exist even in the hardest circumstances. Youth homelessness is a serious issue, but stories like his reminds us that young people are strong and capable when given support. Hope grows through education, safe spaces, and people who care. Even when life feels unstable, hope can guide homeless youth toward a better future and remind them that they are more than their struggles.
Thank you for reading that, and thank you for writing such a beautiful essay. It speaks volumes of you. We wanted to make a short presentation, and I wanted to also welcome Ron Book, the chairman of the trust, who is here now. But we want to thank Ms. Tobin. She is retiring as a teacher after 36 amazing years. I can't even count the number of students that have won this contest that were her students, and it just speaks volumes of you, your commitment to these issues, and what an amazing teacher you've been. So thank you so very much. And it's not just this issue. She has been heavily involved in the 5,000 role models at our Homeless Awareness Day program. She's organized turkey and hygiene drives for Chapman Partnership. She has gone above and beyond, not just for her students, but for our community. And from the bottom of our heart, we are incredibly grateful to you, and you're going to be missed dearly. And I think you are an inspiration, not just for the students that you teach, but for all of us and your colleagues as well. So thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
And I just give the flowers.
If we could have all the winners.
I'm sorry.
Yes, I was just going to say, but go ahead.
If we could have all the winners and the artwork and their families come up, we're going to take one large group shot. And then when we're done, Lisa Moslem is going to guide you out to the area over here so you can get your prizes and any other information. And we will get the pictures to Lisa, who will get them to the teachers and the family. So thank you.
And I would be remiss, number one, not to again thank Ron for coming up with this idea 20-something years ago. And I want to particularly thank Vicki Millett, who does an amazing job, not only as our executive director, but in organizing this event as well. Thank you both very, very much. And congratulations to all the winners. Thank you.
Here's after. Yep. Because we didn't do a complete... I'm sorry. Can everybody step back, please?
I want the artists with their work across the front, please. Perfect. All right. We're going to need some folks in the back, the taller ones.
Preparate people. We're like... We're like... We're like... We're like... We're like... We're like... Anna, please.
Please, please. You can step back.
We need... Move all the way back to the...
And take one or two giant steps back, carefully. And please, like you're all family.
You can step back a little bit more. A shorter people towards the front. If you have the tippy toe, I can't see you.
Ease off.
No, I can't see her. So what you can do... No, no, no. Stand up, baby. Stand up. Yes, perfect. We do want to fit... You have to just fit into the little... The little glove. Perfect. I got to get the cheese first. First cheese. Hold on. One second. Okay.
Let me let...
All right. Let's go. Big smiles, everyone. Big smiles. One, two... And let's do the famous macaroni and...
Cheese! All right.
Perfect. Do me one quick favor. The young man, we're going to redo your picture. You can stay right there. Everyone else can go follow Lisa in the turquoise dress. We're going to take one more picture for this young man. I have to do them right. I got to do it right. Let's have one person on the side.
Do you know what GQ is?
We're going to call GQ and get you on the cover.
We're all on the cover. All right. Perfect. All right. Let's go right here. Big smiles, big smiles. And look right here. All right. Thank you so very much.
Thank you.
Good morning. Let's try it again. Good morning. Good morning. A little bit better. We are behind. I apologize. We're going to go out of order. I'm going to, before we do that, Vicki, let me get us in proper posture. I assume we didn't do minutes? You did minutes. Okay. Did we do anything other than minutes? Reasonable opportunity to be heard has been disposed of. Fine. We're going to move immediately to the right at home initiative. We're running a little bit behind. We had queued them up for about 20 minutes ago. So if I could, I'm going to say to each of you something we've already said, but I want to say it with emphasis today. This is a new chapter. This is the beginning of a new day in our community. This is part of Cleave the Missing Piece. How do we keep people placed where they are? How do we make sure, my dear, that we end homelessness and we stay with an end to homelessness? This is part of the equation. We got lucky. We got fortunate. Somebody from the county happened to be at the right conference at the right time that created some introductions that gave us this opportunity today. I repeat, this is the beginning of a very new day for us. And I'm going to flip it to Vicki.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Dolores Holley from HCD. The Homeless Trust is one of 10 communities selected to be part of a national homeless prevention initiative called Right at Home. With approval from this body last October, we applied for and were awarded a grant in the amount of $325,000 to facilitate the planning and implementation of a homeless prevention pilot program. The goal is to stop homelessness before it starts. The national initiative is led by non-profit Homebase. The University of Notre Dame will lead a randomized control trial of our work. And technology company Cisco is a leading partner. Right at Home principals are joining us virtually today via Zoom. And I'd like to welcome Jeff Olivet, Charlinda Catchings, and Nicole Thomas. And with that, I will toss it to, I believe, Jeff. Technical issues? If someone from the control center could let us know what the status is. There he is, Jeff. We just are waiting for audio. Hold on one moment. We're still pending audio. We don't have audio? Well, we just got video, so we're walking in the right direction. You look marvelous today, Jeff.
So you got me. Maybe I like this one-way communication thing. Maybe I can negotiate some additional stuff here. I mean, I got my banker here. I got Suffer No Fools. Lawyer doesn't lawyer himself. I got my lawyer here. I got my judge here. You know, and he's silent.
Jeff, can you see if your mic is unmuted?
You may need to log off and log back on.
You're unmuted, Jeff. I can see it, John. Linda, we can't hear you. Charlinda, we can't hear you either.
Log them back in.
Maggie, I need some guidance here. Do we log off and have them log back in?
They are unmuted. That's why you need to log off. That's exactly what needs to happen. They're off. No, I think they logged off. Let them log, give them a chance to log back in and see if it fixes the heavyset woman. Yeah, I saw it when I was coming in.
Very good talk.
Yeah, while we're waiting to solve our technical difficulties, let's, G is the first one. Let's go to 4G Justice Assistance Grant. Ms. Bollett, you'll recognize, please, quickly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On February 19th, the Justice Department, Bureau of Justice Assistance, released an opportunity to call the BJA Fiscal Year 25 Public Safety and Mental Health Initiative. The goal of the program is to address homelessness, restore confidence in public spaces, and reduce the burden on law enforcement and the justice system. The grant requires applicants to have a justice agency partner and a mental health partner. The Homeless Trust has worked with the 11th Judicial Circuit and WestCare to create an enriched transitional housing program at the Salvation Army. Our intention is for referrals to include homeless individuals being diverted from problem-solving courts, jail, who are coming through problem-solving courts, the mental health court, the substance abuse court, the veterans court, and exiting persons who are homeless prior to being in a crisis stabilization unit. It is, maximum award is $3 million over 36 months. It requires match funding, 20%, 20%, and then 40% in year three. We are seeking food and beverage funding of approximately $1.1 million to provide the required match. We are actively working this application, so that's why we say approximately. And the application requires submission by March 30th and April 6th, two different dates. So, asking the board to approve our ability to apply.
Motion to adopt, please. I've got a motion. I have a second. Okay. Motion, I've got a second. Other questions, comments, discussion. Questions, comments, discussion. Seeing none, all... Maria, Maria, I am... Correct. Judge, I've got comments. Seeing none, all in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All right. Motion to adopt. I am going to do something. I want to... Anybody leaving, you're recognized. We're on 4D, please. The audit.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners passed an ordinance last June requiring all county boards to conduct an independent financial audit. Our audit has been completed, and there were no findings across any of the funds managed by the trust. The audit... Who did the audit? The audit was led by the firm of Anthony Brunson, and Auditor Gene Borno is here to provide more information on the examination of our financial records, accounts, business transactions, accounting practices, and internal controls.
The trust had nothing to do with picking... Come on. The trust had nothing to do with picking the auditor, correct?
Correct. We work with the clerk of the court.
And it was... And it was... Correct. And everything...
Correct. From your standpoint. Correct.
I'm going to ask the auditor in a minute. I'm asking you.
Yes, sir. Okay.
That said, we're recognized...
Good morning, everyone. Mr. Chair, thank you. First, I'd like to take a moment to thank the team that helped us, the executive director here, Vicki Mallette, Mrs. Abreu, as well as Mrs. Ellis, and their entire team for their collaboration and help throughout the audit. So, we truly appreciate it. We know how much it takes to complete an audit. So, we truly appreciate that. With that, if you guys don't mind, go to attachment two, and I'll walk through the financial statements as well as our report. It would be attachment two. Attachment one is a required letter that we have to do to the board. We did do that, but I want to go through attachment two, which is the financial statements, September 30, 2025, with the independent auditor report. So, on the first page, just an introduction, page two would be the table of contents. So, we'll start here. Actually, it's page one on the first page I want to start with, which is the opinion. So, essentially, we perform our audit in accordance with the applicable standards, which is the government auditing standards, as well as the generally accepted auditing standards. And we perform the audit, and we find everything presented fairly in the way that the department presented it to us. So, meaning that there were no findings or any issues, essentially, with our opinion. And we provide basis to our opinion. On here, we also presented an emphasis of matter. Within why we do that into our report is that we want to make sure readers of the reports understand that we didn't audit the county, but we audit a specific department within the county. Otherwise, it's standards, language, there were no issues, like I mentioned earlier, with the report. I want to skip to page four of the document. It will show the balance sheet governmental funds. Here on this page, it shows that the assets, as well as the liabilities of the departments, and each of the funds that we presented or re-opined upon. So, on here, it shows you total asset for each fund. Food and beverage tax fund essentially got about $45 million in asset. Domestic violence, $27.9. And homeless sub-trust sub-fund is $970,000. In the capital project fund, which has about $21 million in total asset. In total liabilities, we have here $4 million in the food and beverage tax fund. Domestic violence does not have any liabilities. Then we have about the same amount for the asset for in liabilities for the homeless sub-fund. The capital project, again, about $89,000 or $90,000 in liabilities. At the end of the year, the fund balance, essentially the net asset that you have in the books, is shown here at the bottom, which shows the total fund balance for each of the funds. So any questions here on the balance sheet? All right, thank you. For the income statements, which shows the activities for that specific fiscal year, which started October 1st through September 30, 2025, October 1st, 2024, through September 25. It shows the activities as to the monies that come in and the money that goes out during that specific fiscal year. So on here, again, it's just standards information that we provided into the report. Oh, sorry, forgot we had something up here. Let's see if we can move on. All right, we were just here. It doesn't show very well. However, this is, again, present the activities for the specific fiscal year. If you have that packet, you'll see on page 5, which is the income statements for each of the funds that we tested and audited. Starting on page 6 through 14, it shows the notes. Again, those are regular notes that we are required to put into the financial statements or the trust fund have to present in the financial statements. So those are standards and there were no issues there either. And starting on page 15 through 17, again, we presented those required supplementary information into the financial statements. And the last few pages are required report and one of them is related to the internal controls that we actually tested and looked through and we didn't have any finding as far as the internal control or any issues on that. So that would summarize, essentially, the trust fund financial statements. I'll pause here to see if there's any questions. Thank you. All right, so we'll move on now to attachment number one, which is, again, another required documentation and required letter that we have to send to the board and those charged with governance of any entities, governmental entities that we audit. Again, it shows you here on page one, again, on top of it, I will tell you it's required communication. We are required to be independent of the trust and the county as a whole, and we were. We have certain responsibilities as far as the financial statements. We list them among others, essentially. But we list our responsibilities as well as management responsibilities if you move on to, yeah, on page, on the first page, it talks about our responsibilities in regard to the financial statements, essentially. All right, so the other thing I want to walk through real quick is on page three of that letter, it talks about certain processes and observation that we have. Again, there were no disagreement with management or any issues as far as what we tested, so no disagreement there. It talks about any consultation, so we were required to report whether management had any consultation with other accountants, so there were no such communication or consultation that were done. Any significant issues, there were no significant issues that we found, difficulties encountered during the performance audit. There were none, and it talks also here about management responsibilities, and then we list all those responsibilities in here on page three. Again, for internal control on page four, if you don't mind, we talk about our responsibilities as far as internal control, any testing we do over that, and then we did take a look at the internal control a bit, and we didn't find any issues as far as internal controls. Obviously, every time we do an audit, we give some ideas and things to management for the betterment of the department, so we did do that during the audit, and one of those is, you know, essentially to work with the team, making sure they're more ready for next year or the future audits that we intend to perform, okay? So those are our two reports. Yes, I was going to say something. Yes, you did mention name and address. So my name is Gene Borno, again, Anthony Brunson, PA. Ms. Mallette actually introduced me. Gene Borno, Anthony Brunson, PA. Our office is in North Miami, Florida.
Of course. The financial integrity of the work of our staff, our team, and this board, ordinance was changed largely to make sure that we were going a step above and beyond, even though we did not believe there was a need from a time and a cost perspective, because of all the other audits and all of the other fiscal accountability and responsibility we have to HUD, our partners, to the state, our partners, and to our other local partners. I could not be more proud of the work of this board. I could not be more super-duper, on steroids, proud of the work that our staff does. I want you to all take an opportunity to take the material home with you and look at it, because you should feel good about what we are as a body and what we do and what you just heard from our auditor. And he's not our auditor. We didn't pick him. We didn't choose him. The county does that. So nobody could ever say, gee whiz, you picked somebody with a wink and a nod and a bib and a bob. This is truly an independent audit, and everybody on this board should feel good about it. I'm going to defer... And the... Right. And I've been corrected. It is the clerk of the court that does it, so it's even one step further removed from us. With that, I want to turn to our finance chair for a brief comment, and then to Ms. Millett to close it. I felt it was important before we finished action items. For everybody to hear this audit issue, it's important.
Steve? Thank you. I serve on many, many boards, and it is rare to get no findings at all, and not even a minor finding. And I just think it speaks volumes of Vicki, her team, Ron, this board. What a remarkable job that is done to make sure that this, the money that we spend is managed perfectly. And it is all documented, and it's all transparent. And I appreciate the work of the auditing firm. And I don't know if we need a motion to accept it, but I'll make one if we do. I got a motion and a second on accepting the audit.
Are there any questions? Are there any comments? Vicki, I am going to recognize you. Let me get it out of the way. All of them?
Yes, unqualified. Correct.
You got it. Part of the motion. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion's adopted. Ms. Millett on a comment on the audit.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Brunson. Or thank you, Anthony Brunson, PA. And thank you, Mr. Borno. I also want to point out, as part of transparency, that we also participate in the county's single audit, which looks more closely at our federal and state awards. We participate in the county's annual comprehensive financial report, which is an overview of the county's financial operations. We're subject to audit by U.S. HUD and the Florida Department of Children and Families. We conduct a sunset review, which comes before this body every two years. It's an evaluation of county boards, and that goes to the board of county commissioners. We submit to this body and the county quarterly and year-end financial statements. We develop a business plan and a quarterly scorecard annually. We annually review and update our community plan to end homelessness priority home. We require independent financial audits from all of our sub-recipients, and we monitored 50 programs in 24-25. And lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't recognize the finance team, and they are small but mighty, led by budget manager, please stand, Maria Abreu, and her team, Johnson Lewis and Nelson Cervantes. Please stand. Please stand. Maria, stand up. Maria, please stand. Nelson and Johnson, if you're here, please stand. And I want to thank the whole Homeless Trust team. Everybody has a hand in this, Mr. Chair.
Thank you so much. Thank you to the entire Trust team. We appreciate you more than you know. Right. Before we do that, I'm going to come back to Homeless Awareness Day, but I don't want to lose a quorum. So if I can ask the Trust board's indulgence, we can always move a motion to reconsider and disapprove it. But let me, so that we don't lose quorum, let me, before we take right at home, let me get a motion to accept the Homeless Awareness Day budget adjustment. Get a second. Let me get it done this way. We'll come back and do the report when we're done with right at home. Do I get a motion? I have a motion. I have a second. Questions, comments. Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion's adopted. Let's go to right at home, please. That was the only other action item other than right at home.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're going to try this again. Jeff Olivet and Charlinda and home base.
But you're not leaving, right? I don't want to try to do this with them on the screen.
I apologize. So Jeff and Charlinda, we do not have audio. I am going to recommend that we table this item until the next board meeting, which is April 24th, I believe.
If they're okay with it. I need a nod of a head that says they're right at home.
If they're okay and we can't see their faces.
Otherwise, Jeff, otherwise, and I think you can still hear me even though I don't see you on my screen. Otherwise, the other alternative is to simply leave you all on the screen if you have any presentables and then put you on the phone on the microphone.
I can't. I don't know what your schedule is like, but we can put you on the phone.
Jeff is on with Manny. Manny's got the phone.
All right.
Go ahead and put it by your microphone.
Pull your microphone down. Turn it on. Your mic's not on, I don't think.
Good morning, everyone. Can you hear?
No. Vicky, your mic's not on. Yes. Go ahead again. Try it again.
Good morning, Chairman Book. Can you hear me?
We do. Can everybody hear Jeff?
Good morning. Good morning, everyone. It's louder. Can you all hear me? Yes. Good morning.
That's better.
Good morning. Chairman, can you hear me okay? I do. Okay. And is there a way to share the slides that we were going to use for the briefing or do board members have them in front of them?
Yes, we have them up on the screen.
Okay, great. I don't know that we have a way to patch in Charlinda and Nicole very easily. So, Charlinda and Nicole, I think I'll just do the briefing if that makes sense to you all. Okay. Thank you all for your patience. And, Chairman, are we ready to go? Shall I just launch in? Go right ahead. Great. First of all, Chairman Book, thank you so much for adding us to the agenda today. And congratulations to all of the young people who won those awards for beautiful art and essays. We were able to bear witness to that. It was really a beautiful thing. And thank you to the board for including us in the agenda today. As you heard from Vicki, Miami-Dade County is one of 10 sites in a brand new initiative called Right at Home that is a national strategy to stop homelessness before it starts. And as I heard the chairman say in the earlier introduction, this has been the missing piece in our response to homelessness nationally and in local communities around the country for the last few years. I first met Ron Book several years ago when I was running federal homelessness policy. I was the head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and was impressed by Chairman Book's just commitment to this issue and leadership of the trust. And as I've gotten to know, Vicki and Manny, over the last few years, you all have real gems in that leadership team. And I hope you know that. We work all over the country and it's rare to see the kind of leadership that we're seeing in Miami-Dade County. I want to say a quick word about the national initiative and how your local work fits into that and talk a little bit about the funding partnerships and some of the technical assistance that's available to you all. The challenge is that we've got homelessness at a very large scale in the country, as you all know, and yet we haven't turned the faucet off very well. I think a lot of communities have gotten better at housing and better at getting people out of homelessness. But when you've gotten more people becoming homeless all the time, then we're never going to end homelessness until we figure out the upstream prevention piece as well. This initiative, Right at Home, has just been launched. It launched officially in late February and it's built upon the model of Destination Home, which is the lead agency in this effort. Destination Home is based in Santa Clara, California and pioneered some of the most effective homelessness prevention work in the country. In fact, the only randomized controlled trial, a very vigorous and rigorous research study on homelessness prevention was conducted on the Right at Home model. And Right at Home, sorry, the Destination Home model in Santa Clara, Right at Home is the national scale up of that model. And we're partnering with communities to work through the systems they already have through, in your case, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to test this model elsewhere. Over the next three years, we're investing at least $5 million per community. We're hoping that number increases as our fundraising efforts increase. We're hoping to hit $10 million per community. But right now, we're able to guarantee $5 million in new dollars coming into your community, funded solely by private sources. Cisco, who Charlinda Catchings, my colleague who was going to talk with you, and you'll hear from her at some point over the next few months, Charlinda and her team at Cisco have been just extraordinary partners in this. Cisco was the first corporate funder for the local work in Santa Clara County and the first corporate funder for the national work with Right at Home. And since then, we've been able to raise almost $80 million to fund these 10 communities across the country. And that number is growing all the time. And we'll be able to infuse more money into your community as we do that. So private investment and innovation, we're going to pair that with rigorous research. The University of Notre Dame Lab for Economic Opportunity, LEO, is the partner in the research part of this. And then our friends at Homebase, which Nicole Thomas represents, is the technical assistance partner. So they're working with Vicki and Manny and the team on getting the system in place to do this. There'll be a period of planning over the next few months and then implementation. And we're walking beside you through all of that. But it's a local effort. I want to be clear that Right at Home is not coming in and hanging up a shingle. We are partnering alongside the trust. And we're doing the same in communities across the country. You are part of a fantastic group of jurisdictions. I'll just go through them really quickly. And I know the board members have them in their packet. That includes Atlanta, Georgia, the Asheville, North Carolina region, which includes some of the rural counties around Asheville, the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative, representing 10 sovereign nations in the state of Minnesota, Austin, Texas, Denver, and Adams County, Colorado, the state of Alaska, and the county of San Mateo, California. So that's the list we have so far. That was eight. We're vetting the last two. And so we're bringing the last two on here over the next few weeks. And over the next three years or so, you all will be implementing this. We'll be supporting you in doing that. And then we're going to test the results so that we can create federal legislation that will support long-term sustainability of homelessness prevention. We know it's cost-effective. We know it's humane. We know it's the missing piece of how we've been addressing homelessness. So we are pleased to be walking beside you all in this journey. Our commitment to you all is that we're going to keep this board updated. We are on call for you if you want to pull us into a meeting. We're happy to give you an update along the way. What we've talked with Vicki and Manny about is at least twice a year for the duration of this initiative, we would be available to do these kinds of briefings. I said at least because we're happy to talk much more often than that. And again, I'll just close in saying a word of gratitude to Ron Book and to Vicki and Manny and the team at the Trust. You all are an incredible partner already in this work. Our team is thrilled to be working with you all. And we look forward to continuing this conversation.
First of all, thank you. Second of all, thank you. Third of all, thank you. Fourth, thank you. Five, thank you. And thank you for $5 million. We appreciate it more than you know, and we appreciate the partnership, and we appreciate what the outcomes of this are going to be. You know how I feel about it. You know how our team feels about it. We've been extraordinarily clear that you are our missing link. And the fact that we are able to, if you will, marry one another at this particular time couldn't be more significant from a local perspective. And Annie, to you on the end down there, this is what you all have been preaching for a really long, long time. I'm looking for other comments before I turn back to Vicki. Yes, Colleen. Yes, ma'am.
You're recognized. Mr. Chair, I just want to say that this information was brought to us at the Lived Experience Working Group, and I want to say how excited everyone was about this, because those of us who have experienced homelessness feel as though this is the missing link. And we're hopeful and prayerful that through this collaboration and partnership that we're going to be that much closer to ending homelessness. We're grateful that we were selected. What an amazing opportunity. It is a blessing. So we want to say thank you from the Homeless Forum, the Homeless Forum, and the Miami-Dade County Lived Experience Working Group. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. And one more thank you for the $5 million.
Let me just say to you, I referenced, this is on steroids, the significance of being able to do this probably two years or better, sooner than we were probably going to get there, really just puts us way ahead of where we know we need to be. So thank you. Vicki?
I just want to again thank Jeff and Charlinda Cummings with, or Catchings, excuse me, with Cisco. I'm grateful for your partnership. And Nicole Thomas with Homebase. I'm sure you heard that they're going to be giving us updates twice a year, so you will see them in person. We will work through these technical difficulties. And thank you for making it work and being so flexible. We're grateful and we look forward to working with you.
Charlinda? Thank you. I, I, I, I, I, hopefully Charlinda can hear us, Jeff, if she can't, please relay this message. I'm a taker, but I'm a giver. I said that first day we met, I'm part of a team. I'm on your team. You're on my team. I'm on your team. You all need to tell us where else we can help you as you are helping us. We're not just takers. We're givers. So thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. We're thrilled to be walking beside you all on this journey. Thank you.
Guys, gals, Cleve, you've been here as long, pretty much as I've been here. It really is a new day. When I said what I said earlier about a new chapter, Pauline, it is. It's the real deal. And the nice part is the, the group that they have is just extraordinary. Their commitment here and around the country is just second to nothing else we've had from a, from an outreach partnership opportunity in 35 years. It's a big deal. Thank you. There's nothing further. I want to let Jeff and his folks go and we can just go ahead and move on. Vicki, how about go ahead and do the quick report on the Homeless Awareness Day. Ms. Moslem, you can come to the mic. I don't know whether there'll be anything for you to add, but go ahead.
Lisa. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Homeless Awareness Day is a signature event of the Homeless Trust and the largest of its kind in the nation. It propels awareness of the trust, educates and raises awareness of the issue of homelessness, and spurs donations and drives across the community for the benefit of individuals and families experiencing homelessness in our community. Student-related activities engage an estimated 15,000 students in 72 schools, and two years ago, we developed a Sprint for Seniors bed race to raise awareness of homelessness among older adults. We have a promo for the upcoming event, if you could play that with audio. Are you ready?
In three, two, one. That brings our community together.
So that event is scheduled for November. We believe, after piloting this event for two years, that there is tremendous untapped potential here. And we, in order to make it more professional and grow the event, we are looking for, and logistically execute it, we need, and create strategic partnerships, we need to make an investment, an upfront investment. So before you is an item that invests, and a budget with line items, that invests another $85,000 into this event, and staffing for the rally to generate the enthusiasm among the 15,000 students and 72 schools that are involved. This would be additional funding annually throughout the term of their five-year contract. That is the M-Network who handles our branding, public relations, marketing, crisis communications, et cetera, and you see the items that we want to invest in. Sponsorship, development services, professional race organizers, including timing professionals. This gets very cutthroat if you were at the last two. Enhanced safety barriers. We want to keep everyone safe during this event. Additional police and EMT services. Signage production. Registration support. So that goes smoothly. More TV production, enhancing what you just saw, and project management. To lay the record straight, we have $180,000 a year contract with the M-Network. $55,000 of that $180,000 is collateral materials. Everything from any brochures, the cards that the police department and sheriff's office leave at the doors when they're executing a writ, those types of collateral materials. So those are $55,000 of the $180,000. This would be adding another $85,000 to the total budget, which I believe brings it up to $265,000, $814,000 annually. The five-year agreement runs through $27,000, $28,000. Is that correct, Terrell? Yes. And with that, we're seeking a motion and approval from the board.
We've already approved it. Let's, for formality purposes, take the new motion since we still have a quorum. We've got a motion, got a second from the chair for a minute. I doubt there's anybody in the room that fails to know that the chairman has a favorite word. It's F-R-E-E. I assure you, I get a ton of F-R-E-E from them. Not a dollar, not $5,000 or $10,000 or $50,000. We get a six-figure amount for free. Over the course of this contract, the responsibilities have grown. The commitment and the partnership has grown. I think everybody here not only knows my favorite word, but you also know my favorite phrase. The chairman's cheap and frugal. I'm never embarrassed to admit it. If I spend my own money, I spend it however I want. I take my role as a fiduciary of the taxpayers of this community. I take my role as a fiduciary of yours, as 26 other members of this board, very seriously. And the staff that represent us do the same thing. This is an increase that I drove. I drove it because I see what we do on Homeless Awareness Day. I see the thousands of children in the school system that we touch every year. This was always about how do we, together with SA and the poster contest, it was how many kids can we touch? And we've gone from waiting placards on the highways, and you chuckle, you know what I mean. And chairmen's out there sweating like, you know what, waving and cheering these kids on. The event has matured. This year, in the arena, there wasn't a seat in the house. At different times when the kids were quiet, think about being in a large arena, you could have heard a pin drop, literally. And it really dawned on me that we had the ability to double the size of the kids that we bring in each year. And this is a result of what Lisa and Tom and their team has brought back to us. You know, people don't always understand what the PR piece of what we do entails. I assure you, we would have to add five or six staff people, full-time equivalents, to Vicki's staff to do what they and their team do every single day. I don't hesitate calling Lisa on a Saturday or a Sunday. She never hesitates to call me on a Saturday or a Sunday. This just works. And the increase is necessary to take this to the next level. With that, I don't think I got a – did I get a motion? We got a motion. We got a second. Cleve, you're recognized. Mr. Chair, I just wanted to go on record as stating the M Network is doing something that we talked about 20 years ago. And it –
Cleve, appreciate it.
Anybody else? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Opposed. Motion's adopted. Lisa, unless you have something burning to add, I want to leave it there because it's late and we got a couple more things. But if you have anything that needs to be added, please.
Nothing critical.
Thank you. All right. We're going to 4B. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in 2023, as this body knows, we received a $21 million grant from HUD. It's called a Special NOFO to Address Unsheltered Homelessness. As part of that award, we enhanced homeless outreach and received technical assistance from HUD and began working with unsheltered cohorts to move households directly and more swiftly from the streets to permanent housing. At the same time, the National Alliance to End Homelessness partnered with Florida International University to study the work we were doing. And we have a presentation here. And we have a presentation here that is the outgrowth of that study and some visuals. And I want to invite Matthew Marr to the podium to talk about this photo voice gallery that you probably saw as you were walking in.
Thank you very much, Vicki. Good morning, board members, and thank you very much for this opportunity to speak with you today. Our research project is titled Equitable Pathways from Unsheltered to Housing, a Mixed Method Participatory Study of Street Outreach Innovations in Miami-Dade County. We call it Equitable Pathways for short. Our project includes observational and interview research with three street outreach teams and their clients, analysis of HMIS data, and a photo voice project. We're finding that the innovations implemented in street outreach when coupled with housing resources have been successful in transforming the lives of people who are formerly living unsheltered. The innovations include enhancing street outreach teams with housing navigators, staff with lived experience of homelessness, cultural sensitivity, housing-focused encampment closures rather than abrupt sweeps, shared housing, and long-term case management after placement. I'm honored to be here with the photographers who participated in the photo voice component of the project. Photo voice is a methodology in which community members document their own experiences and bring their work to a broader audience for dialogue and social impact. Our participants all have experienced unsheltered homelessness in recent years in the county and moved into housing with help from street outreach teams. Community partners and FIU graduate and undergraduate students held workshops in spring of 2025 and helped guide the photographers through creating pictures, photos, captions, and calls to action depicting the past, present, and future in their journey from being unsheltered to housed. Today we're sharing some of that work and would appreciate it if you could take a look outside and speak with the photographers and team after the meeting. We also have a QR code for the project in the packet, so please scan it to visit our website, which includes the digital version of the photo voice gallery and one of our research reports. I'd like to just recognize the photographers for their excellent work and dedication. They're here with us. It's Arnold Johnson, Lynette Perez, Lourdes Herrera, Manuel Lopez, and Cesar Rodriguez. Thank you so much for being here today. I just wanted to note that two other participants moved from subsidized housing to live with family out of state and have found work. I also want to thank the team, Gary Allen, who we've worked with on two other photo voice projects at Camilla's house before and during the pandemic, Joshua Evans of the Behavioral Science Research Institute, and FIU PhD candidate Sebastian Vuelvas. And finally, I just want to thank the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust staff, especially Manny Saria, of course, for your generous facilitation of this research project. And I also want to express deep thanks and respect to the outreach teams, especially the frontline workers. This was New Hope, Miami Recovery Project, and Hermanos de la Calle. Although there have been very, certainly have been challenging moments, it's been an honor and a joy to witness your life-saving work. Thank you all very much.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Got it 12.30.
Thank you very, very much. I want you to know how much we appreciate it. More that we know the value. There are so many intangible things in our continuum that become tangible along the way. This is one of them.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Matthew.
All right. Is that where we are? Go down. Go down to the microphone. Folks, folks, folks. This is one of those special moments. We had one earlier with the poster and essay contest. But we do employee service pins five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years. And we delayed this last meeting because one of our truly unsung heroes is Maria Abreu, who, without her financial and budgetary experience, keeps us protected, keeps us informed, keeps us on target. She's it. 25 years with the county. She oversees all financial and budgetary matters pertaining to the trust, which includes the planning, allocation, monitoring of all of our trust funds. She helps develop our annual budget, manages our capital project portfolio, ensures compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements, coordinates the trust annual audits, and ensures overall fiscal responsibility. Maria began her career with us in 2019, and before coming to us, she was budget coordinator with the Office of the Commissioner of the Auditor, a budget analyst, three, with the budget office, and a special project administrator and accountant, two, at the Community Action Agency. Prior to her service, Maria worked as a staff accountant at a CPA firm, a contract accountant for a not-for-profit, and contract officer with the South Florida workforce. Maria received her bachelor's degree in accounting from Metropolitan University in 1984, and her MBA from Florida International University in 2005. Maria, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for putting up with Vicki, thank you for putting up with Terrell, thank you for putting up with Manny, and frankly, putting up with me is easy compared to putting up with them. And then you've got the finance chair next to you, the judge, thank you.
I'll just say a few words to Maria is a consummate professional. She is so detail-oriented, which is exactly what you want in a budget manager, and she is large and in charge with her team, and I know that she doesn't ask of them anything she's not willing to do herself. And most unfortunately, Maria is retiring from county service, and so this will be her last PIN presentation, and next July she will be leaving, but she leaves behind a couple of daughters who are involved in the county, and leaves us with zero findings. So thank you, thank you.
I'm retired, and I thought I had at least a little pull around here, and then you go ahead and let it out of the bag. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. Good morning, board members and guests. Good morning. I'm going to see if they could pull up the presentation. Good afternoon. We went from the morning to the afternoon. All right. So I'm Kavaya Sardui with Chapman Partnership, and as a private sector partner, I'm here to provide you all with a strategic report on the progress of Chapman. And this morning I will be discussing our key performance indicators for the month of February, and I'll also share some organizational highlights. Our census capacity, we remain at 101, fully occupied, still working with our outreach teams. Our positive outplacements, we landed on a 40 percentile rate. The average length of stay was 90 days. We were successful in placing 123 individuals into permanent housing pathways, and we supported 35 families in the hotel, motel, scattered site locations. As far as employment placements, our year-to-date numbers, we were successful in placing 202 individuals into permanent employment opportunities, and the average hourly wage was $16.20. So we are thrilled to announce that our president and CEO, Scott Hansel, has been recognized as one of the power leaders in philanthropy by the South Florida Business Journal. So congratulations to Scott for that honor. And this honor just celebrates leaders who are making a significant impact on philanthropy in South Florida, and I can say that my experience as having him as a servant leader has truly given me the ability to continue creating impact within our community. So congratulations again, Scott. My next update is our client empowerment programming, and these are pictures of our recent second annual Women's Empowerment Event. This event was specifically focused for our female clients. We had eight dynamic women leaders in our community who came in as panelists to share their real-life journeys with our clients through resilience and growth and actually speaking on what sisterhood really, really means. And this was an amazing event. We're going to continue to have these empowerment events to uplift our women as they are going through their temporary situation. And my next update is in regards to our strategic partnerships. I just want the board to know within the last two and a half years, under the leadership of Scott, our entire executive team has been intentional about strategic partnerships in our community and making sure that we're connecting with our community and making sure that we're connecting with our stakeholders, community organizations, faith-based organizations to help us and collaborate with us to restore the lives of the clients that we do serve. This particular partnership is with Be Strong, and Be Strong launched their first fatherhood cohort in partnership with us. This particular program is designed to strengthen fathers through long-term guidance, accountability, and personal development. We had nine fathers graduate, and this was a 13-week cohort. One of the most inspiring moments for these fathers was the happiness and the joy that their children displayed as they were calling their names to receive their certification of completion for this amazing milestone. And it was truly rewarding to see their children, you know, rooting them on and praising them for a successful step toward restoration. So, we're going to continue with these amazing partnerships, supporting our fathers and our men, as well as our women. My last and final update, Mr. Chair, is that our annual Take a Walk in Her Shoes is scheduled for April 14th. Tickets are on sale on our website. This is an annual fundraising event that we do that helps support our women and children. And if anyone is interested, you can go to our website at chapmanpartnership.org. And, Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. If I'm open for any questions, recommendations, or feedback.
Okay. No. Okay.
Yes.
One second. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me see if Scott wants to. Yeah. Scott has more knowledge on this, so is it okay if Scott comes to the podium? Thank you. I don't want to miss.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, one of the things that's become really important to us is to continue to build our workforce development programming. And ensure that people have an income once we get them into housing to sustain themselves. And so, we were approached by Lennar last year, or two years ago, about doing a program in which we would hire Chapman clients while they were still at Chapman. And then contract with private entities to employ them, and then give them an opportunity, some that have barriers for employment, a greater opportunity to build a resume and show that they can show up for work and show that they can do things well. So, we got funding from Lennar Foundation. We had a cohort of seven people that we hired that were living at Chapman that began being park stewards on the underline. All of those people since May, saved enough money to get their own housing, so they've all been housed. They've been in this role for about a year, and in addition to that, we've been working with Lennar. I know this is more than 45 seconds, I'll try to speed up, but to re-up and give us an additional funding for another year so we can increase this. And so, we just recently found out from Lennar, they've been very happy about it. They're giving us another $300,000. The underline is matching that $300,000 for an additional 10 people to work on that particular program. So, we really want to continue to expand that. It functions as a staffing agency, and it's not just for Chapman clients. We've had Lotus resident also be employed through this program. So, this is something we're looking to do and contract with other private individual municipalities, commercial real estate, and grow this program as much as we can and scale it. So, that's, anything else? Sorry. We're excited. Thank you.
Thank you for recognizing that.
Thank you.