Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

Two members of the national Steering Committee for Funders Together - the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - have announced significant new funding commitments for regional efforts to end homelessness.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Awards $875,000 To Address Homelessness in Los Angeles and Fund Research to Improve Lives of Foster Care Youth

On March 4th, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced three new grants to organizations focused on two of the foundation’s key initiatives in Los Angeles: homelessness and foster youth.

From the press release announcing the grants:

“The Hilton Foundation recognizes that many individuals and families in Los Angeles are in danger of falling through the cracks at this difficult period in our country,” said Steven M. Hilton, president and chief executive officer of the Hilton Foundation.  “One of our goals is to provide help before situations become emergencies, and we know that the Weingart Center and United Way of Greater Los Angeles are especially equipped to achieve this.”  Hilton added, “Many of our youth transitioning out of foster care also find themselves in very vulnerable situations, so we hope to find ways to better assure their success.” 

Due to the current economic crisis, an increasing number of individuals and families are at risk of being homeless and are struggling to meet basic needs.  In Los Angeles County, unemployment is at 10.5%, the number of people on food stamps has increased greatly and calls to the government hotline for social services increased by 20,000 each month during this winter.  United Way of Greater Los Angeles will distribute funds from the Hilton grant to more than 30 organizations that are providing emergency services throughout the County to help prevent people from falling into homelessness.  Funds will be used to provide motel vouchers, rent subsidies, meals, groceries and emergency and transitional shelter beds can be made available.

Gates Foundation joins others in goal to cut homelessness

The Gates Foundation's commitment, to be managed and distributed by the Washington Families Fund, is part of a new commitment by partners in the Fund to to reduce the number of homeless families by 50 percent over the next decade. The Gates Foundation has previously given $40 million in grants to help homeless families and learn how to better tackle the problem.

From the article:

Governments and private groups together spend about $200 million a year to address the problem in Washington state, but as economic conditions worsen, the number of homeless families keeps going up. About half of the state's estimated 22,000 homeless households are families with children...

That reflects a rise in the number of homeless families in 2008 over 2007, especially in South King County.

"The trend lines have gone in the wrong direction, period," said David Bley, director of the Pacific Northwest Initiative at the Gates Foundation. "We need to go about tackling the problem differently than we have in the past."

For one thing, there's not enough emphasis on preventing homelessness by keeping people in affordable housing. Only 3 percent of the $200 million is used for prevention, he said.

"It feels totally out of whack from what we know works — it's easier to keep people in a home than put them back once they've lost one," Bley said.

Bley said other needed changes include providing permanent housing as soon as possible, rather than "transitional housing," and standardizing the fragmented systems used to determine what families need, so they get access to the same services no matter where they go for help.

"Some people will need a lot of services and some people will need nothing more than a rent subsidy," he said.

The program also will focus on improving the economic prospects of people with low incomes or no income, connecting them with work-force development and job training. And more money will be invested in getting better data on homeless families to understand the problem.

"It is difficult to assess progress if you don't have good numbers," Bley said, "and it is very difficult to serve individual parents and children well if no one is tracking their needs, the support they get and the progress they are making."