Money Coming Into Pasco County To Fight COVID And Help Homeless

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — Due to COVID-19, Pasco County has been receiving record money primarily through the CARES Act from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help fight the pandemic.

In September, the Board of County Commissioners voted to commit to $3.8 million dollars of the COVID monies for a bold new initiative to permanently house over 30 percent of its unsheltered homeless neighbors. This means a commitment to house 225 individuals and families in the next 180 days and prevent 100 families from becoming homeless.

The plan is the result of collaboration between the Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County, the Pasco Continuum of Care (CoC), Pasco County Community Development (administrators of the Emergency Solutions Grant funds) and its contractual partner the Florida Housing Coalition.

The effort began with the development of a Coordinated Investment Plan which identified all the available funds, estimated the need and associated money required, and identification of partners to carry out the plan.

Outreach partners to identify and assess our homeless neighbors include Metropolitan Ministries’ Brigade and Pasco’s own The Sword and the Spoon.

The key goal is to re-house 225 unsheltered households in 180 days. The county also plans to prevent 100 households from becoming homeless in 180 days. To permanently house homeless in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, households will be provided the ability to self-isolate and quarantine in their own housing.

Outreach teams have been deployed to encampments and hotspots to engage the unsheltered and assist them in getting document-ready and assessed for housing. Over 400 homeless households have been assessed in the coordinated assessment process and 30 households are awaiting housing placement. To date we have already placed 26 households. The number of households being re-homed will be updated weekly on the coalition’s website www.pascohomelesscoalition.org

This initiative does need help from the community in identifying any house/mobile/apartment with a "For Rent" sign on it. If anyone sees this, the county asks that they safely take a picture of the contact information and send it along with the street number and address to the housing locator Kelly Miller-Funk at rentinpasco@gmail.com.

“We will see, as a community, the quality of life improve for all concerned, as more and more of our homeless households retain permanent housing,” said Don Anderson, CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County. “If there is a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the money being available to help our homeless neighbors.”

The Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County was established in 1988 and has invited agencies, businesses and citizens to help support our efforts to relieve the suffering of Pasco County’s homeless families and individuals. The coalition’s mission is to support, coordinate and unify the efforts of all stakeholders and expand resources, while providing education and advocacy to prevent and reduce homelessness in Pasco County.