Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

A couple of weeks ago the head of one of the nation's leading funders reiterated it's long-held belief that housing is at the heart of nearly every key social issue funders face - an opinion we very much share at Funders Together. Here in it's entirety is the commentary from Jonathan Fanton, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

I spent a couple days in New Orleans recently learning about the recovery effort from Katrina. It was, in a word, stunning. I was stunned by the endurance of the devastation more than three years since the storms, as well as by the resilience and passion with which residents are rebuilding their great city.

Deciding whether funders need to shift from "grantmaking as usual" in the ongoing economic crisis is probably a foolish question - clearly, grantmaking as usual just won't cut it in the months and years ahead.

While the exact numbers have changed since it was initially created, this recent graphic from the Washington Post provides a fascinating look at the distribution and timing of the http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/02/01/GR2009020100154.gif.

Learn more about Funders Together's mission, goals and approaches, including a brief presentation of our Funding Principles for Ending Homelessness.

Melville Trust responds to a blog post critique from the Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland.

Commentary from executive director of the Melville Charitable Trust, G. Robert Hohler.

I had just returned from a business trip and saw a copy of the recent Boston Globe article about the lay-off of 100 case managers. This is just the tip of the iceberg as states all across the country seek to balance budgets in the face of severely restricted revenues. It is likely there will be many more direct care staff layoffs and cuts in other community services and supports affecting thousands of people with disabilities before the economic situation improves.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, an implementing partner for Funders Together, has published the new edition of Homelessness Counts, documenting changes in homelessness populations from 2005 to 2007, looking more closely at changes at the state level and among subpopulations.

Interested in finding out which cities and regions around the country have completed Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness, or want to find your local plan? Drawing upon a previous collection put together by our colleagues at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, we have created the following interactive map of completed plans from around the country.