HOUSTON, Texas (July 25, 2023) – Houston Endowment today announced a $10 million operating grant to the Coalition for the Homeless.

This grant from Houston Endowment is intended to help carry our work forward and attract the ongoing support of local government, philanthropic, and business communities to make investments that will continue to reduce homelessness in the region.

“We want Houston to be the first major metropolitan area in the U.S. to end chronic homelessness,” said Ann B. Stern, president and CEO of Houston Endowment. “We hope these dollars can supercharge the transformational work already being done by all the organizations involved, but our investment alone is not enough. We need the continued partnership and support of the city of Houston, Harris County, and business and philanthropic sectors to reach this ambitious goal. Let’s not settle for maintaining the status quo. Let’s continue to model what can be accomplished when you build coalitions across the public and private sectors — real, impactful change for Houston and its people.”

The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County is a capacity-building organization. It has served as the lead agency for The Way Home since its inception, bringing together dozens of direct service organizations and securing the funding and other resources needed to secure housing and services for the most vulnerable people and monitor real-time data and trends. The Way Home was profiled in a 2022 New York Times story about Houston’s progress on homelessness.

“This extraordinary grant from Houston Endowment will set us up with solid footing on the path to long-term sustainability. It will amplify our ability to do what we do best: build capacity for the entire local homeless response system,” said Michael Nichols, president and CEO of the Coalition. “By uniting partners and maximizing resources, we address the system so direct service providers can address the most urgent need: helping people end their homelessness. We believe we can make homelessness in our community rare, brief and nonrecurring. Since the inception of The Way Home in 2012, the Houston Endowment has been the philanthropic leader in developing a homeless response system that is organized, coordinated, pragmatic and scalable. We are so grateful to Houston Endowment for their commitment to our work.”

It is important to note that this significant gift doesn’t immediately change the Coalition’s fundraising and spending plans. The Coalition plans to invest this generous gift from the Houston Endowment to build a strong financial foundation - both for the Coalition and for The Way Home.

This strategy will create sustainability for the Coalition itself, allowing us to have a fully staffed team of experts to support our partners’ critical work to house people and families experiencing homelessness. It will also position us to rapidly respond to emerging needs - including natural disasters - as they arise. We know from Hurricane Harvey and the COVID pandemic that the Coalition was often called to stand up programs to keep people experiencing homelessness safe even before federal resources were immediately available.

This gift was part of a larger investment of $15 million in The Way Home, Houston’s ongoing collaborative effort to reduce homelessness with grants to four key local partners: Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County ($10 million); SEARCH Homeless Services ($3 million); The Beacon ($1 million); and U.S.VETS ($1 million). Since 2012, The Way Home has moved more than 28,000 people into permanent housing, resulting in a more than 60% decrease in overall homelessness, and reduced reliance on costly jail and emergency room visits, resulting in Houston having one of the lowest rates of homelessness among major metropolitan areas and becoming a model nationwide.