Fund grants $123.45 million to 40 nonprofits across the U.S. to move the needle on re-housing and supporting families experiencing homelessness
DALLAS – (November 22, 2022): Housing Forward (formerly Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance) today announced that it has received a $1.25 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund—the largest private gift focused on families in the organization’s history. Launched in 2018 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to leading organizations on the frontlines that are employing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability.
“One of our community’s priorities is to significantly reduce family homelessness, and this grant allows us to further that work and really dig deep in providing case management, diversion, outreach and other critical assistance and support to families across Dallas and Collin Counties,” said Joli Angel Robinson, president and CEO of Housing Forward. “We are grateful for this funding, and we sincerely appreciate the recognition of the tremendous work that our entire system is doing to ensure that every unhoused neighbor in our community has a safe, stable place to call home.”
This one-time grant will help Housing Forward in its tireless work to support families as they reel from skyrocketing rent costs and insufficient incomes. Housing Forward plans to use the grant funds to increase their system’s overall capacity to meet the growing demand felt by direct service providers that serve families. This funding will help the Dallas and Collin Counties Homeless Response System provide additional critical support staff to assist families experiencing homelessness. Housing Forward, alongside the All Neighbors Coalition, will be able to provide additional services to help people avoid entering the homeless response system. This work will include assisting families in resolving immediate housing needs through creative, housing-focused problem-solving; connecting families to natural supports or community resources; and providing financial assistance to aid families in getting past often short-term hurdles.
Housing Forward was selected as a Day 1 Families Fund grant recipient by a group of national advisors who are leading advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision. National advisors brought expertise on housing justice, advancing racial equity and helping programs employ resources effectively to assist families out of homelessness.
Over the past five years, the Day 1 Families Fund has provided 170 grants totaling more than $520 million to organizations around the country working to combat homelessness and help families gain housing support and stability. This year, the Fund issued a total of $123.45 million in grants to the following organizations: Carpenter’s Shelter; CATCH, Inc.; Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona; The Center for Women and Families; Changing Homelessness; Chapman Partnership; Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County; Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, Inc.; Community Services & Employment Training (CSET); Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO); Family Promise of Hawai’i; Family Promise of Northern New Castle County; Family Services of Tulare County; Flagstaff Shelter Services; Gateway180; Heartland Alliance; H.O.M.E. Inc.; Homeless Alliance; Hope House of Milwaukee; Housing First, Inc.; Housing Forward; HRDC; Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers, Inc.; LA Family Housing; Mother Nation; Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, Inc.; New Reach; Oglala Sioux Tribe; Partners for HOME; PATH; The Salvation Army, Denver Metro Area; Samish Indian Nation; San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness; Sojourner Truth House; Solo Por Hoy, Inc.; Start Corporation; Strategies to End Homelessness; The Wellspring; YWCA Cass Clay; and YWCA Missoula’s Housing Programs.
The Bezos Day One Fund made a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities. The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.
About Housing Forward
Housing Forward, formerly Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA), was founded in 2002 to serve as a collective voice for homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties. Housing Forward has the expertise, partnerships, and resources to lead a system-wide, data-driven strategy to solve homelessness in our community. Housing Forward works together in collaboration with the All Neighbors Coalition to lead system-wide strategies for ending homelessness in our community. The All Neighbors Coalition is made up of more than 100 partner organizations across Collin and Dallas Counties that provide critical resources and support directly to individuals, Veterans, youth, and families experiencing homelessness. Learn more at www.housingforwardntx.org.
