Re-engaging Philanthropy in the Fight to End Homelessness
By Martha Toll

A group of foundations is launching an initiative to re-engage philanthropy in the fight to end homelessness. Using the lessons learned from an array of experts including advocates, homeless people, service providers and researchers, the initiative will report on current and historic philanthropic involvement in homelessness. It plans to make subsequent concrete recommendations about what funders can do to address the issue. The recommendations will be disseminated broadly to the philanthropic community and will chart a course for future action on how to inspire and support the philanthropic community in its efforts to end homelessness.

The Butler Family Fund, a national foundation based in Washington, DC, and the Better Homes Fund, a national organization based in Newton, Mass., are spearheading this exciting project to reinvigorate philanthropic interest in ending homelessness. They are concerned that, despite early and well-intentioned efforts during the 1980s, foundations seem to have shifted their focus away from the issue. Yet homelessness persists and has worsened since the 1980s. In recent years, it has a disturbing, new face - families. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, homeless families with children now constitute 40 percent of the homeless population, with that number likely to be higher in rural areas.

In the early 1980s, homelessness in America reached epidemic proportions. Because they viewed homelessness as a situational crisis resulting from transient economic misfortune, policy makers believed emergency shelters would provide individuals and families the respite they needed to find housing. Philanthropy responded to the cry for action by supporting an array of housing and service initiatives to help stem the tide. However, with the low-income housing crisis worsening; increasing cutbacks in assistance to the poor; the growth of low-wage, no-benefit jobs and the widening gap between rich and poor; the number of people without shelter continues to grow. Now, 20 years later, the homeless crisis continues unabated.

Despite these troublesome developments, the atmosphere of crisis has diminished. The public seems to have developed "compassion fatigue." A generation of American children finds homelessness to be an acceptable part of the American landscape. The federal government has drastically reduced its commitment to long-term, permanent solutions and much of philanthropy has turned away from the problem.

Our country has the capacity to end homelessness; we know what works and we know what needs to be done. Despite the seemingly overwhelming nature of the problem, there are real, permanent solutions available. Although philanthropy will never have enough resources to end homelessness, we have an important role to play in catalyzing the public and our policy makers toward solutions. There is something that every foundation can contribute, no matter how large or small, no matter what its geographic scope, to solving the problem of homelessness.

Several foundations have already expressed interest and joined us in our effort. We want you too! We need your ideas, your brains, and your assistance. Join us and participate.

To contact the organizers: Martha Toll, executive director, Butler Family Fund, 1710 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036; 202-463-8288; butlerfmfd@sysnet.net; or Phoebe Soares, director of programs, The Better Homes Fund, 181 Wells Avenue, Newton, MA 02459; 617-964-3834 ext. 12; phoebe.soares@tbhf.org.

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