Project-Based Housing

The HOPWA project-based housing assistance program offers low-income persons with AIDS the opportunity to occupy efficiencies, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, or three-bedroom housing units that are operated by community-based agencies or low income housing developers under the City of Miami HOPWA contract. Applicants should take note that any rental subsidy assistance that may be attached to one of these project-based units remains with the unit, not the tenant, in the event that the tenant later vacates, or is evicted from, a HOPWA project-based unit.

Project-based housing units are located on Miami Beach and in central Miami-Dade County.

Form of Assistance

The project-based housing assistance program provides eligible households with ongoing rental assistance, subject to continued eligibility and the availability of HOPWA funds.  Program participants must pay a portion of the rent, usually 30% of their monthly adjusted household income. The HOPWA program pays the difference. Program assistance is attached to the project-based unit and will, at all times, remain with the unit. Participants’ income eligibility must be recertified annually and the rental units must pass re-inspection each year.
 

Who is Eligible?

  1.  Applicant must have received a medical diagnosis of AIDS, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control ("CDC”). In the case of a family unit applying for HOPWA assistance, one (1) or more of the family members (regardless of age) must have AIDS.
  2.  Applicant’s income, or in the case of a family, the family’s income, must not exceed 80% of the medium income for the Miami-Dade EMSA. In calculating income, the HOPWA counts the income of all family members.
  3. Applicant may apply as an individual or as a family. A family is a household composed of two (2) or more related persons with at least one person diagnosed with AIDS. Persons in a family may be related by ties of blood, marriage, or other legal sanctions or deemed to be important to the care or well-being of the household member with AIDS.

Application Process

The opening of the application period is advertised periodically in a general circulation newspaper with citywide coverage at least 15 days prior to the acceptance of applications. Once the application period expires, all applications are entered in an electronic spreadsheet. This information is then used to generate a random lottery which determines the order of the waiting list. Once the waiting list is established, all applicants are informed, in writing, of their waiting list number. Receiving a waiting list number does not directly qualify the applicant for the program.

Clients who encounter, or believe that they have encountered, discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, familial status, or disability shall be referred to fair housing and/or legal counseling offered by local organizations such as H.O.P.E., Inc., H.E.L.P., Inc. and Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc.

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