Pridelines is thrilled to announce that The Executive Committee of The Homeless Trust approved $2.4 million in funding to create the first-ever LGBTQIA+ youth housing in Miami-Dade. This recommendation comes from Miami Homes For All, Youth Dementration Housing Project and The Homeless Trust, following a comprehensive review process led by a committee appointed by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Out of 11 proposals submitted, six projects were selected for funding, with Pridelines being one of them.
Recently, the Executive Committee of The Homeless Trust cast their final vote on this recommendation. This funding will significantly bolster our efforts to provide a safe, supportive, and stable living environment for LGBTQIA+ youth facing housing insecurity in Miami.
The $2.4 million recommendation is part of a larger grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), aimed at addressing housing needs and homelessness. With this HUD grant, Pridelines plans to develop comprehensive housing solutions that include not only safe living spaces but also essential support services. These services will encompass mental health counseling, educational resources, and job training programs, ensuring that LGBTQIA+ youth have the tools they need to build a brighter future.
Pridelines has been on the frontlines of local homelessness support for well over four decades. Founded in 1982, Pridelines and its youth leaders provided informal shelter and housing support to Miami's LGBTQIA+ community, especially young people cast aside by their disapproving families because of their queer identity, expression, and orientation. They were often forcibly removed from their homes due to anti-LGBT local ordinances allowing property owners to evict queer people from their residences in Miami-Dade County.
Over the past 14 years, Pridelines has assisted thousands of individuals at risk and in need through the agency's Project SAFE program – Safe Accommodations For Everyone. Since 2010, Pridelines Project SAFE has operated comprehensive drop-in and wrap-around service and resource centers at all agency locations, providing immediate and emergency support to LGBTQIA+ youth and community members navigating housing insecurity or experiencing homelessness.
Pridelines has accrued remarkable experience, strengthening our institutional knowledge, skill, and expertise in delivering robust homelessness support and culturally and linguistically competent care. Project SAFE's suite of programming includes holistic mind, body, and spirit evidence-based approaches, individualized case management, systems navigation, comprehensive HIV/STI screening, counseling, treatment and care, mental health counseling and therapy, personal and professional development, and creating safe, inclusive and affirming spaces for Miami and South Florida's LGBTQIA+ youth and community.
This historical precedent and reputation for excellence in competent, high-quality service delivery, coupled with Project SAFE's innovative programming, made our proposal particularly appealing to MHFA, MDCHT, and the YHDP Committee. Pridelines is known for our hyper-localized public health interventions, leveraging strong community bonds built through decades of relationship cultivation with community members, stakeholders, influencers, activists, and advocates. We prioritize active listening, transparency, accountability, and trust.
Alongside our informed, activated, and passionate local community, Pridelines has aided those who are under-resourced, in need, at risk, and living life at the margins — from efforts focused on ending Miami's longstanding HIV/AIDS epidemic to developing holistic and sustainable solutions to youth housing insecurity and homelessness.
HUD and MDCHT's YHDP Initiative and grant will support the establishment of Pridelines' Project SAFE House at Rainbow Road – Miami's first and only LGBTQIA+ specific Transitional and Permanent Rapid Rehousing program and facility for queer youth navigating housing insecurity or experiencing homelessness. Set to open in the Fall of this year, the Rainbow Road facility will house up to 26 young people and provide holistic supportive programs, services, and resources, such as personalized and comprehensive case management, public social welfare system navigation, mental health counseling and therapy, clinical services, personal and professional development, and a suite of special, large group activities and events. These are designed to uplift and cultivate community, reinforce peer support, and strengthen the next generation of LGBTQIA+ local change agents and community development activists and advocates.
Significant efforts are currently underway to secure a newly-renovated, 22-unit building in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood.
The Program's name – Pridelines' Project SAFE House at Rainbow Road – is inspired by the final level before victory in the popular racing video game, Nintendo's Super Mario Kart, called Rainbow Road. Rainbow Road features a rainbow-colored racing course suspended in space and is one of the most iconic visuals in video gaming history. For years, Super Mario Kart's Rainbow Road has been a favorite of Pridelines' Project SAFE youth seeking escape and reprieve from trauma and challenges.
Awesomeness!