The Washington Families Fund, a public-private partnership led by anti-homelessness nonprofit Building Changes, has announced a commitment of up to $60 million over the next ten years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for an initiative designed to help end homelessness among families in the state.
As part of the initiative, the state of Washington; King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties; the cities of Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma; and several philanthropic and corporate partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which they pledge to redouble their efforts to minimize shelter stays and provide critical ongoing support services for homeless families with children and families on the brink of homelessness. The signatories also agreed to streamline funding for family homelessness programs so that current resources can be used more efficiently and effectively while they tap new resources to address what is a growing problem.
The partners will employ five proven principles to guide future family homelessness investments: early intervention and homelessness prevention; coordinating access to support services; rapidly re-housing families; providing services tailored to meet each family's individual needs; and increasing economic opportunity through education and workforce services. Beginning this year, pilot projects will be launched in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. Lessons learned in those counties will be applied across communities statewide, with the goal of reducing homelessness among families with children by 50 percent in the next decade.
Other partners in the initiative include Boeing, Microsoft, the United Way of King County, the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, and the Ben B. Cheney Foundation.
"It saddens me that families with children make up nearly half of our state's homeless population. And unfortunately, the economic crisis may push even more families with children into homelessness," said Washington governor Christine Gregoire. "We must do more as a community to help families achieve and maintain stability. This Memorandum of Understanding is an important step at a critical time."
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"This short video is about the many reasons behind homelessness and focuses on the life of Tomey Smith. This video was produced for Building Changes by Linas Phillips and contains excerpts from his film, Great Speeches From A Dying World."
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