Miami makes $200K donation to the nation’s largest shelter for ladies and kids

The metropolis of Miami has donated $200,000 to Lotus Village, the nation’s largest shelter devoted to ladies and kids, for job coaching packages.

The cash comes from a bigger $3.1 million allocation of federal funds by the town authorities towards packages to assist folks experiencing homelessness, a part of a plan promoted by Mayor Francis Suarez to cut back homelessness to “functional zero.” Suarez introduced the donation Tuesday in Overtown, the place he and different officers have been led on a tour of the shelter by Constance Collins, Lotus Village’s founder and president.

“This is our community. It shows love. It shows compassion. It shows we care about each other,” Collins stated throughout a press convention. “And at the end of the day, the greatness of a city is not measured by how high its buildings are. It is measured by how we treat those who have the least.”

Collins and her workforce have grown Lotus Village from 34 beds in a run-down house constructing to a five-story facility with 500 beds and a bunch of social providers available on website for ladies and kids with no place to go.

READ MORE: Lotus Village, a Miami homeless shelter that appears like residence, set for bold enlargement

The announcement got here days after the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust launched the outcomes of its twice-annual census, which urged that the variety of folks experiencing homelessness could also be on the rise.

“It’s more important than ever that we redouble our efforts,” Suarez stated, including that the census depend reinforces the necessity for the $3 million funding in an array of social packages. The mayor, whose political advisers have been floating the potential of a Suarez presidential marketing campaign primarily based partly on his report in Miami, stated he plans to carry a number of extra press conferences to announce different donations.

Suarez additionally acknowledged the current controversy over the town’s efforts to create a number of dozen “tiny homes” for the homeless on Virginia Key, an initiative that has been placed on maintain. Suarez stated he labored with Commissioner Joe Carollo, who has advocated for extra aggressive measures to take away homeless folks from public areas, to push for the town to carry off on the mission for at the very least six months.

“Now we’re putting this money to work,” he stated.