Funders Together to End Homelessness San Diego Invests in Homeless Response System Capacity and Bringing Families Home Program

Funders Together to End Homelessness San Diego (FTEHSD), a collaborative of San Diego Grantmakers, has announced two new grants to the community to invest in ending homelessness.

FTEHSD awarded $87,500 to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless to extend an earlier investment of $250,000 to fund a Chief Operating Officer and other senior leadership to build capacity for our Homeless Response System, a system of providers who provide housing and support services to people experiencing homelessness.

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless is a consortium of representatives tasked with strategic planning and coordination of resources to strengthen the homeless crisis response system and end homelessness in the San Diego region. The coordination of all actors in the homeless and housing support service realm ensures a system that can act as one, and services that flow most effectively to those who need them.

Funders Together strongly supports the work of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless to coordinate and continue to build an effective homeless crisis response system that will quickly move people from the streets into housing.  “It’s important for philanthropic collaboratives, like FTEHSD, to invest in building capacity of backbone organizations. Funding capacity means a more coordinated system, which means better services, faster to those who need it,” said Amy Denhart, director of Funders Together to End Homelessness San Diego.

FTEHSD also awarded $30,000 in flexible funding to the “Bringing Families Home” program of the Child Welfare department of the County of San Diego.  This investment adds on to an earlier investment of $100,000 to help develop this successful program. Bringing Families Home provides rental assistance and housing placement to reunify children with their parents.

Often, the barrier to somebody receiving and keeping housing is just a small expense like for car repair to get to work, or an extra damage deposit for someone with bad credit.  These expenses can’t often be funded with restrictive government funds, so a pool of flexible dollars with no red tape or strings attached that clients can access can be the difference between homeless and housed.

“Bringing Families Home is a wonderful program at Child Welfare Services that reunites families and helps them to find housing and support in order to thrive.  We’re proud to be able to provide flexible funds to make it easier for families to move into homes,” Denhart stated.

Funders Together to End Homelessness San Diego is a regional collaboration of San Diego Grantmakers  that combine and align resources to actively end homelessness in the county. To learn more about FTEHSD, please visit their webpage or contact Amy Denhart.