“Roofs Rising” Represents Miami’s Greatest Reminder That Housing Ends Homelessness
Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust Creates Art Installation to Ignite Awareness and Support Among Landlords About Homeless Housing Programs
November 8 – 15 at Brickell City Centre
More than 1,000 people call Miami streets home. The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust wants to change that by growing its stock of available rental units to house the homeless. To help raise awareness of this goal, and in honor of Homeless Awareness Day, November 9, 2017, the Homeless Trust is launching an art installation called “Roofs Rising”– an initiative that encourages the public to rethink the connections they have to landlords who may have available housing.
Roofs Rising is mosaic made up of more than 1,000 hand painted mini-homes laid out in the shape of one large house. Each house was painted by a different student, elected official, community leader or activist.
“Roofs Rising may be Miami’s greatest reminder to date that housing ends homelessness,” said Ronald L. Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. “Our entire community needs to coalesce around the issue of affordable and supportive housing for homeless individuals and families, while learning about our RentConnect initiative, set up to fund homeless housing. We are using Roofs Rising as a non-traditional way to identify rental units so we can get more people off the streets, out of shelters, and on to living new lives full of hope and potential.”
Designed to call attention to the homeless housing needs in our community and to educate people about RentConnect, each house represents a homeless person living on Miami streets and in need of a home. The mini-homes will eventually become house-warming gifts to those in the Trust’s Continuum of Care, but more importantly, serve to open doors and pathways for supportive housing solutions for those most vulnerable in Miami-Dade.
The Homeless Trust’s RentConnect provides a team of housing professionals who connect landlords with tenants. The initiative provides guaranteed rent, high touch support for landlords and renters, security deposit support and claims based mitigation funds. Landlords wanting to register properties with the Homeless Trust should visit www.homelesstrust.org or call 305-375-5605.
Some build photos:
More than thirty organizations– such as Ransom Everglades School, Florida International University, Chapman Partnership, Swire Properties, local elected officials and even federal officials – gave of their time and talent to decorate and paint houses and to assemble the project into a16’x20’ piece of art open to the public.
This unique art installation is being constructed as a first time project by Life Is Art, a Miami Beach based arts organization creating positive change in the community through art and culture events.
For more information on hosting the Roofs Rising art installation in your community, contact Adrienna Sotomayor at 305-571-1455.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday 7 pm
Launch of Roofs Rising at Brickell City Centre, 701 S. Miami Avenue. It’s an art installation made up of mini-houses, hand-painted by hundreds of Miamians. Amazing visuals impacting vast audiences around Miami – 30 plus organizations participated! Project is aimed at getting landlords to rent to the Homeless Trust. Invite only. For a VIP or Media invitation, please contact us.
Thursday, 10:30 am
19 different public high schools unite at St. Thomas University to learn about homelessness. Speaker is a formerly unaccompanied/homeless youth who is now on scholarship at FIU. Amazing kid. 800+ students attend.
Thursday all day
School events and rallies (mostly morning and some late afternoon) – 60+ events including “Bench Meet Ups” where kids will rest on benches for long periods of time to understand a little about what many homeless experience every day.
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About The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust: Founded in 1993, The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust is a county agency headed by a board of 27 volunteers which serves in an advisory capacity to the Miami-Dade County Commission charged with the responsibility of implementing the Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan. These volunteers represent the business, religious, educational, provider and political communities, along with formerly homeless individuals. For more information regarding The Homeless Trust visit www.homelesstrust.org.
