The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH), the lead agency to The Way Home Continuum of Care, today announced an approximately $1.6 million investment in Houston’s ongoing work to address family homelessness with grants to three key local partners: The Beacon (~$323,000); Bread of Life, Inc. (~$892,000); and Wesley Community Center (~$426,000).

The funds come from a larger $5 million grant to CFTH from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, announced in November 2022. Launched in 2018, 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.

“We are thrilled to be able to award these grants to our partners,” said Mike Nichols, President & CEO of CFTH. “Our homeless response system and partners have been focused for more than a decade on permanent housing with supportive services as the answer to homelessness. Thanks to the Day 1 Families Fund, the awards CFTH makes to these three partners will drive innovation and accelerate connection to services for families experiencing homelessness. However, it is still crucial that local governments step up to provide public funding. Private philanthropy alone can’t solve homelessness.”

A committee of CFTH staff selected The Beacon; Bread of Life, Inc.; and Wesley Community Center because of the sustainability of their programs and their focus on supportive services that keep families housed over the long term. Project funds will be used to assist families currently experiencing homelessness – unsheltered or sheltered – to help them regain housing through diversion, an employment pathway program, and/or social enterprise.

With the grant, The Beacon will be working to engage families with minor children who are experiencing unsheltered or sheltered homelessness or are at imminent risk of homelessness. Their work will be focused on providing intensive case management and involving families in exploratory conversations to identify realistic options to regain housing. In addition, other supportive services will be available including legal aid and help with obtaining state-issued IDs to ensure access to housing and employment.

During the 12-month grant period, The Beacon anticipates serving 96 families with minor children and successfully preventing 48 of those families from further falling into homelessness. This work will be accomplished with the addition of a diversion specialist and resource support specialist made possible by this grant. These new positions will work closely with the existing frontline staff and legal team at The Beacon to ensure that each family’s needs are understood and addressed.

“The Beacon is so honored to be recognized as an agency doing compassionate, needle-moving work in our community with this generous grant award from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund,” said Becky Landes, Chief Executive Officer of The Beacon. “We are poised to play an integral role in helping families regain safe, stable housing, and achieve well-being through carefully planned and executed diversion services. While this work will be brand new for The Beacon, we know that many families with minor children are already reaching out to us because of our well-known reputation for helping people in crisis. All too often, these are families newly homeless or on the brink of becoming homeless. Our program staff have learned to triage these instances, but this funding will truly galvanize our ability to keep families stably housed.”

The Bread of Life, Inc. Academy provides vocational training and pathways to employment for adults who have experienced hardship and are seeking to transform their lives through education and career development. In addition to vocational instruction, life skills, and career coaching, the academy provides wraparound services, helping address unmet needs that may prevent students from completing the program and moving toward new opportunities. At the conclusion of their training, students will be eligible for certification as a phlebotomist, community health worker, or IT associate, propelling their income potential forward and providing a steppingstone to financial security for their families.

With this funding, Bread of Life, Inc. plans to start a new initiative called Project H.O.P.E., to bridge the gaps in mental health services and address the urgent needs of students in The Academy requiring healing, outreach, prevention, and education.

“Individuals who have experienced foster care or incarceration — and those who are from marginalized communities — are often more likely to experience mental health symptoms and tend to be less likely to get appropriate care and treatment,” said Dr. Ryan Harris, Vice President of Behavioral Health Services at Bread of Life, Inc. “We are grateful unmet mental health needs will no longer be a barrier for students in The Academy who are seeking to transform their lives. This funding will provide needed therapeutic interventions by licensed professionals to promote health and well-being for our students.”

Wesley Community Center will help community members who are leaving homelessness train for new careers while receiving wraparound services such as childcare, transportation assistance, income assistance, and mental health services. Wesley's work has always centered around helping the whole person, and these additional resources will make it easier for clients to reach their goals by removing the stumbling blocks that sometimes prevent success.

“This grant will help provide transformative services at Wesley Community Center,” said Amy Corron, President & CEO of Wesley Community Center. “We are so grateful for this opportunity, allowing us to provide families with employment and supportive services, and, for the first time, paying stipends to help offset the opportunity cost of spending weeks and months in training. This is a game-changing opportunity for many families who can’t take time off work to train for a better job. We are excited to pilot this expansion of our services.”

The grant-funded programs will run through Nov. 30, 2024. Anyone experiencing homelessness who is interested in receiving services should contact the Coordinated Access email inbox run by CFTH at ca@homelesshouston.org.