I. INTRODUCTION

Twenty years ago widespread homelessness did not exist in America. It was during the 1980s when homelessness emerged as a prominent national issue. Despite the economic boom of the 1990s, and a two billion dollar a year infrastructure designed to address the problem, homelessness has increased at an
alarming rate during the past two decades. Even worse, families with young children make up a growing proportion of the total homeless population.

New data and analysis have enabled homeless advocacy groups to better understand the nature of the homeless population and the causes of homelessness. While advocates and some policy makers have never questioned that homelessness must be ended, there is now a growing conviction that homelessness can be ended. National policy and research groups such as the National Alliance for the Homeless and the Urban Institute argue that eliminating homelessness in America will not require ending poverty, mental illness or chronic disease. While these broader goals are important, a national effort focused on the specific systemic causes of homelessness can have a major impact, perhaps within the span of a decade.

This renewed willingness to grapple with homelessness and the underlying issue of affordable housing is manifest in a number of recent developments nationally and in California, including: the Congressional formation of the bi-partisan Millennial Housing Commission; the national housing trust fund legislation currently pending in Congress; President Bush’s reestablishment in March 2002 of the Interagency Council on Homelessness which is charged with preventing and ending homelessness; California’s $2 billion affordable housing bond measure scheduled for the November 2002 elections; and California Governor Gray Davis’ April 2002 Homelessness Summit. Additionally, the New York Times published an editorial in March 2002 commending President Bush for encouraging federal programs to collaborate to end chronic homelessness. Recent editorials in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe also call for renewed attention and efforts towards ending homelessness.

The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation recently created a program area in Homelessness, building upon its successful experience funding local homeless service providers through its Children, Youth and Families grantmaking program. It has already begun to re-engage other philanthropic organizations around the issue of homelessness, after nearly a decade of decline in the number of foundations with homelessness grantmaking programs. At a time when local, state and national organizations as well as government agencies, are converging toward a goal to end homelessness, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation is well positioned to provide both strategic guidance and targeted resources to end homelessness locally and nationally.