Stephanie Berman-Eisenberg


Stephanie Berman-Eisenberg is President/CEO of Carrfour Supportive Housing, a position she has held since 2006, Berman-Eisenberg has guided Carrfour's development into Florida's largest non-profit provider of supportive housing. Berman-Eisenberg earned a master's degree in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University.
Berman-Eisenberg oversees a current inventory of more than 1,700 supportive and affordable housing units and "has led the effort to assemble more than $200 million in funding to develop an additional 500 units over the coming years."
She serves on the City of Miami Beach Affordable Housing Committee, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Affordable Housing Committee, and the JPMorgan Chase Community Advisory Committee. In 2011, The Miami Herald named her as one of South Florida's "20 most influential leaders under the age of 40." In 2017, she was selected for The Miami Herald's CEO Roundtable.
Her articles on homelessness in Miami have been frequently published on the Opinion Page of The Miami Herald, including "Stadium plan to house homeless no slam dunk," "A step forward for homeless vets," and "Fighting homelessness in Miami." Berman-Eisenberg was named one of the most "Influential Business Women" by the South Florida Business Journal in 2013 and 2014. She was featured in a national profile for Commercial Property Executive in January 2014.

Ending homelessness

Her efforts to implement novel, replicable approaches to reducing poverty and ending homelessness within many of Miami-Dade County's most economically-distressed neighborhoods have been widely profiled in news, business, and trade publications. Berman-Eisenberg opposed a 2012 Florida Bill to use stadiums as temporary homeless shelters.
In a presentation to the 2013 National Community Reinvestment Corporation conference, Berman-Eisenberg urged increased public/private partnerships to address the housing needs of people with special needs. Shortly after his confirmation as the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson traveled to Miami where Berman-Eisenberg hosted him at Carrfour Supportive Housing's Villa Aurora community to show him the direct impact of federal housing subsidies.
In August 2019, Berman-Eisenberg urged Florida lawmakers to enact four measures to expand availability of affordable housing:
In 2011, Berman-Eisenberg co-founded Operation Sacred Trust, a collaboration of social service agencies with a shared commitment to disrupting homelessness for South Florida veteran families. Between 2011 and 2020, the public-private collaboration succeeded in winning more than $15 million in federal grant funds for the initiative from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families program to provide housing prevention and rapid rehousing services to more than 8,000 very low-income veterans and their family members in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
In 2020, Operation Sacred Trust earned three-year national CARF accreditation.
A 2012 Huffington Post article featured Operation Sacred Trust as a new model for ending veteran homelessness.
“Disrupting veteran homelessness has to include building and sustaining sufficient affordable housing that meets the needs of our most vulnerable veteran families. That begins with a roof over their heads, but has to also mean formerly homeless servicemen and women have a place to call home that they value, and where they can be part of a community,” Berman-Eisenberg said.

Response to COVID-19

In April 2020, Berman-Eisenberg urged policy-makers to rapidly respond to COVID-19's impact on a South Florida housing market that was already stressed. "Our community did not have enough affordable housing before the pandemic and we are not prepared for the onslaught that is coming our way."
She called on local, state and federal housing officials to "use funding in non-traditional ways" to create additional affordable housing quickly, such as "incentivizing landlords of vacant non-affordable housing to reduce their rents to an affordable level. In addition, funding rental assistance programs will also bring immediate relief."
"Unfortunately, we are a community that has spent years trying to build consensus around a plan, but never got to consensus or true community-wide implementation," Berman-Eisenberg said. "A commonality in all plans is that given the magnitude of the problem, a multi-pronged approach must be implemented. Rather than continuing to have dialogue and trying to reach consensus, I would urge that we as a community take on whatever we have the ability to do from any of the plans, and just do it. Whether you are a developer, lender, government or a private citizen, now is the time for us all to take action."

Expansion

Berman-Eisenberg has sought to expand Carrfour's impact beyond Miami-Dade County.
In 2019, Carrfour broke ground on the Residences at Equality Park, its first development outside of Miami-Dade County. “There’s a growing need for affordable housing in South Florida, particularly among underserved populations such as the senior LGBTQ+ community and those living with disabilities,” Berman-Eisenberg said. “Beyond providing a place to call home, Carrfour will partner with The Pride Center to ensure that residents at The Residences at Equality Park have convenient access to community services, healthcare, financial planning, and social networks that combat isolation.”
In March 2020, Berman-Eisenberg announced a partnership "with Steadytown, a Melbourne-based family foundation focused on community development, to develop Heritage Park at Crane Creek, a mixed-income housing development here. The $22 million project will have 108 units of supportive, affordable and workforce housing with specialized services for formerly homeless and low-income individuals and families."
In April 2020, Globe Street reported on Berman-Eisenberg's development efforts in Sarasota. "Carrfour’s plans include a minimum of 80 mixed-income apartments" with "rent would range from $439 to $1,278, depending on the unit type. The affordable housing units would serve residents with an income between 33% and 80% of the annual median income for Sarasota County."

Awards and recognition

Berman-Eisenberg, a native of Miami Beach, is married and has three children; a son and two stepsons. She lives in North Miami Beach, Florida.