Washington, DC – Nine of the nation’s largest private foundations have joined forces in a commitment to end housing instability in America. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The JPB Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Melville Charitable Trust, and Oak Foundation announced today that they have formed a collaborative called the Funders for Housing Opportunity (FHO) that has already committed $4.9 million to four grantees over three years to address U.S. housing insecurity and its impacts.
In today’s announcement FHO stated, “The issue [access to stable housing] cannot be addressed in isolation, and the group is calling upon nonprofit, public and private partners across a range of areas such as education, health and employment to play a role in promoting long-term change that delivers results.” The support from FHO will allow organizations to extend their reach beyond their respective networks to bolster efforts to end homelessness and housing instability in America.
After a year-long planning process, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) was chosen to be among the first set of grantees to receive an award. NLIHC is collaborating with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children’s HealthWatch, Make Room, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness to align strategies and form a multi-sector housing campaign to mobilize leaders from within education, health care, civil rights and anti-poverty sectors to address the lack of access to affordable homes for millions of extremely low income households in America. FHO has committed $2.7 million to the multi-sector housing campaign over three years.
“The burden of trying to find a stable and affordable home affects far too many people in America,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of NLIHC. “Meeting this basic human need is the cornerstone to success. Having a safe, decent, affordable home makes the difference between thriving and struggling to survive. This extraordinary commitment by FHO will help the multi-sector housing campaign galvanize a broad new movement to ensure the most vulnerable have access to affordable homes.”
“The solution to homelessness is straightforward: housing. Unfortunately, the nation is currently facing one of the most severe affordable housing crises in history,” said Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “The Funders for Housing and Opportunity collaborative represents a critical chance to collectively leverage philanthropic resources, and increase the impact of public, private, and non-profit efforts to end homelessness and housing instability in the United States. We are honored and grateful for this support.”
“It is exciting to see some of the nation’s largest philanthropic foundations collaborate to advance a pressing issue that receives too little attention,” said Barbara Sard, vice president for housing policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Having a safe, stable place to call home is an essential building block of people’s health and prosperity— yet too many families, seniors, and others struggle to pay the rent every month, putting them at risk of eviction and even homelessness. The resources that the Funders for Housing and Opportunity are providing will enable us to delve deeper into finding and advancing effective solutions to help our nation’s most vulnerable.”
“At Children’s HealthWatch, we know a stable, affordable home is a prescription for good health,” said Dr. Megan Sandel, principal investigator with Children’s HealthWatch. “FHO committing funding for this cross-sector campaign shows the leadership we need to ensure everyone has access to that prescription for healthier communities.”
“Make Room is honored to join the multi-sector housing campaign in our shared mission of advancing bold policy solutions to ensure that every person has access to a home they can afford,” said Ali Solis, president and CEO of Make Room. “We applaud the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations for joining forces to create the Funders for Housing Opportunity (FHO) and investing in a collaborative that together will bring us closer to creating stable homes for all.”
The multi-sector housing campaign will officially launch during NLIHC’s 2018 Housing Policy Forum on March 20.
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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonpartisan research and policy institute. Its mission is to pursue federal and state policies designed both to reduce poverty and inequality and to restore fiscal responsibility in equitable and effective ways. CBPP applies deep expertise in budget and tax issues and in programs and policies that help low-income people, in order to help inform debates and achieve better policy outcomes.
Children’s HealthWatch is a nonpartisan network of pediatricians, public health researchers, and children’s health and policy experts. The organization is committed to improving the health and development of young children by informing policies that address and alleviate economic hardships.
Make Room is a charitable organization that’s dedicated to exposing the human suffering and societal costs of the rental housing crisis and advocating for bold solutions that will end housing insecurity.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is to end homelessness in the United States. We use research and data to find solutions to homelessness; we work with federal and local partners to create a solid base of policy and resources that support those solutions, and then we help communities implement them.
Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.