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The HAND Program provides temporary rental assistance to eligible individuals and families in Miami-Dade County who are currently homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. The Program was recently expanded to help people experiencing economic hardship as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. You may qualify for rent assistance under this Program expansion if you lost your job on or after March 1, 2020, or have less income due to COVID-19; if you have received written notice from your landlord that you may lose your housing because your rent is late; and if you pass specific rent and income tests.

Unfortunately, the number of COVID-19 victims needing rent assistance far exceeds available funding. In an effort to assist as many of these people as possible, the Program will use a computerized lottery system to determine the order in which eligible applicants are assisted. To see if you qualify to participate in the lottery, you must first complete this portal’s online screening process. You must complete the screening process by 11:59 PM on June 5, 2020.

If you do qualify for the lottery, you will be required to provide the Program with your name, an email address and a contact telephone number. If you do not have an email address and need assistance completing the screening process, please call the Homeless Helpline at 1-877-994-4357 or the HAND Program at 305-231-7667. The lottery will be conducted at noon on June 8, 2020. If selected, you will receive an invitation via email with a link to redeem a registration code on this portal. You will then be able to complete the application process, upload required documents and work with a case manager assigned to help you through the application process.

Eligible COVID-19 applicants may receive rental assistance for past due rent, current rent due, and rent for upcoming months.

For more information about the HAND Program and eligibility for COVID-19 rental assistance, visit the FAQ page.


Update as of Sunday, June 7: Thank you to all those Miami-Dade county residents who applied for rent assistance through our online portal. We know just how many of you are suffering economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic because we received more than 29,000 applications. Of these applicants, 3,466 of you qualified for the lottery. We are committed to helping as many of you as possible, as quickly as possible. Starting at noon on June 8, we will start processing the applications for the initial 300 lottery winners. And we will continue to process the applications of additional lottery winners until we exhaust all our funding. Please check back here each day to see how many lottery winners’ applications we have processed or are processing. Also, check your email regularly to see if you have received an email notifying you that you are a lottery winner.