The Gift of Giving
Emily Learned • January 7, 2021
The Gift of Giving
As we look to 2021 with bright and optimistic eyes ahead, we want to take time to reflect with gratitude on a year of giving in 2020.
The COVID pandemic made 2020 a year like no other, which has brought more change than we could have imagined. This year, one of our goals as a development team was to create true partnerships with all our donors, from monetary donations to in-kind goods received. At the onset of COVID, we counted on groups and organizations like NACC Disaster Services. The NACC team, led by Pastor Jose Ortega, answered our call for help, and provided food, essentials, and warehousing for donations received. In addition to NACC, countless groups donated to our request for hygiene, basic essentials, and PPE items including The Village Connect, Open Gate Mission, BOMBAS, B-Strong, University of Houston, The Ismaili Muslim Community Collaboration, the Houston Food Bank, and many more community individuals and businesses/organizations.
As a hint of the region's future ahead, we were delighted to hear from so many youth community members reaching out to our organization and asking how they can best help. Many of these groups, including Klein Forest High School’s National Honor Society, have been instrumental in setting up in-kind and monetary donations in their community.
Additionally, monetary gifts and donations to the Coalition and our Community COVID Housing program continue to help make significant impacts on homeless solutions in our community. Thanks to generous donors, we are one step closer to a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.
These are challenging times, with much work to do, and we cannot do it without community support. From our Staff, Board of Directors, and those whose lives you have touched, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has provided gifts, contributions, investments, and support to the Coalition for the Homeless. We look forward to continuing to work together in 2021.
Thank you for helping to shape the future of the Houston Region! To learn more about giving to the Coalition, click here
or contact Vice President of Development Sara Martinez at smartinez@homelesshouston.org.
Houston, Texas (February 24, 2026) – This week, the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH) is leading the annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey (“PIT Count”) to determine the number of people experiencing homelessness across Houston and throughout Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties. “We may see a slight uptick in the number this year, but we have a plan,” said Kelly Young, President & CEO of CFTH. “With the support of the City of Houston, Harris County, and private funders, we have been piloting new interventions to shorten the length of time people in our region experience homelessness. With adequate funding, we look forward to expanding those interventions to help people regain lives of self-determination.” CFTH coordinates the Houston region’s public-private homeless response system, The Way Home . Through this collaboration, The Way Home partners have successfully housed over 36,000 people since 2012. CFTH will release the results of Houston’s 2026 PIT Count in the summer, following independent verification by an epidemiologist. These findings will provide insight into how factors such as increases in the cost of living and the end of federal pandemic relief funding have impacted homelessness in our region. More information about the 2026 Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey The PIT Count offers a snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in our region on a single night. This year, the “night of record” is Monday, Feb. 23. CFTH determines the number of people staying in shelters on that night by pulling records electronically from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) . The unsheltered count will be conducted on the following days, from Tuesday, Feb. 24 to Thursday, Feb. 26. More than 400 volunteers and staff of local nonprofit service provider partners will canvass the three-county region to survey people living unsheltered, using an app on their mobile devices. Results from the 2026 PIT Count will help gauge the progress of The Way Home’s ongoing collaborative efforts. It will also help CFTH and partner homeless outreach teams understand geographic shifts and target their outreach throughout the year. The PIT Count illuminates specific programmatic gaps and provides additional information needed to allocate resources most efficiently. The PIT Count is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for the annual Continuum of Care (CoC) funding process. HUD furnishes the majority of funding for programs that provide housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness in the region. In 2024, HUD granted more than $71 million to the Houston area.
As lead agency to The Way Home Continuum of Care (CoC), CFTH is working with local governmental entities to advocate on behalf of people experiencing homelessness to ensure their needs are being considered as winter weather affects our region. We will make frequent updates as we receive information. Please check back often for the latest information. Last updated 02/01/2026 at 12:00 p.m.
While our system has helped thousands of people move from homelessness to housing, this year’s results highlight the need to broaden our approach.
