Hamilton County, Ohio – Strategies to End Homelessness, which leads a coordinated community effort to end homelessness in Greater Cincinnati, today announced that it has received a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund—the largest private gift 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.
“Our analysis of homelessness data identifies solutions that are needed. Unfortunately, we only have enough capacity to help about a third of the families that are in need, and other funding sources do not support some of the services homeless families need the most,” said Kevin Finn, president and CEO of Strategies to End Homelessness. “We are grateful to the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund for this impactful grant, which will both expand capacity in existing data-driven programs and also support new services that data indicates are desperately needed.”
This one-time grant will help Strategies to End Homelessness and its partners in their tireless work to support families as they reel from skyrocketing rent costs, limited services, and insufficient incomes. Strategies to End Homelessness plans to use the grant funds to prevent many children and families from ever experiencing the trauma of homelessness, to break the cycle of homelessness for others and to assist hundreds of at-risk families to progress toward self-sufficiency in safe, stable housing.
Strategies to End Homelessness 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.
About The Bezos Day 1 Fund
The Bezos Day 1 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 Strategies to End Homelessness
Strategies to End Homelessness, a 501(c)(3), leads the coordinated community effort to end homelessness in Greater Cincinnati and envisions a community in which everyone has a stable home
and the resources needed to maintain it. Through the coordination of the local homeless services system, administration of City, County, State, Federal and private funding to partner agencies, and the operation of programs, Strategies to End Homelessness prevents homelessness whenever possible, assists people out of homelessness, and offers solutions to homelessness through housing, serving approximately 11,000 people annually. For more information, go to https://www.strategiestoendhomelessness.org.
