Lazaro Trueba can’t bring people back from the dead, but he has given many in the homeless community a second chance at life through his work with the Lazarus Project.
Why it matters: The program, named after Trueba and the Biblical figure Jesus resurrected, provides psychotropic medication to unsheltered people living with mental illness.
- Trueba, a city of Miami special projects assistant, is retiring in April after decades working in homeless outreach. He received an award from the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust last week for his contributions.
Catch up fast: Trueba came up with the idea for the program about 30 years ago, secretly giving unsheltered people their medication without official authorization.
- His goal was to address the revolving door of the Baker Act, in which unsheltered people were involuntarily committed, given medications and returned to the streets — only to wind up back in the hospital.
- A doctor told him patients kept coming back because it takes time for psychotropic medications to take effect, and the unsheltered patients weren’t taking their medicine, according to the Miami Herald.
- It wasn’t until 2014 that the Lazarus Project was officially born, with recurring funding and a medical team from Camillus House to diagnose patients and prescribe medications.
- The end goal is to get people permanent housing.
What they’re saying: Trueba says in the program’s first year, the team was able to find housing for 10 unsheltered people out of 12 total patients.
- “The program took off from there,” Trueba tells Axios. “We’ve helped so many people.”
- He says he’s confident the program is in good hands, but had one message for Miami-Dade Homeless Trust executive director Victoria Mallette:
- “Please keep funding the program, and don’t change its name,” he says while laughing.
