Tarrant County Homeless Coalition has received a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, the largest private gift in the history of the nonprofit leading the community solution to homelessness in Tarrant County.

This is the sixth round of annual Day 1 Families Fund grants that recognize leading organizations doing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families experiencing homelessness secure housing and achieve stability, the coalition said.

“This gift from Bezos Day 1 Families Fund is transformational for our organization and will have incredible impact on our community,” Lauren King, executive director of the Homeless Coalition, said in a statement. “This funding comes at a critical time when more families than ever are experiencing homelessness in our community and as we look for more innovative ways to meet those increased needs.”

How the funds will be used

Lauren King

It’s a one-time flexible grant that will support the Homeless Coalition, which was founded in 1989, in serving as a critical lifeline to children and adults in families experiencing homelessness, who represent more than a quarter of the homeless population nationally.

The Homeless Coalition said it plans to use the grant to enhance services available to families experiencing homelessness with increased efforts to end homelessness quickly through diversion, housing location, and additional supports to help families return to self-sufficiency.

The coalition said it will distribute $2 million of this grant to its partners who serve families in need in three different ways:

• Diversion efforts. Diversion helps get families out of homelessness as quickly as possible by reuniting them with family and other community supports.
• Family housing navigation. Locating an apartment to rent is one of the most difficult and tedious parts of getting out of homelessness. A housing navigator can help guide families through the search and leasing process to help them find a new place to call home.
• Enhanced services for families experiencing homelessness. These services will work in partnership with family housing programs to provide enhanced support services to higher needs families who need more help getting back on their feet to self-sufficiency.

More on the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund

The coalition said it was selected as a Day 1 Families Fund grant recipient by a group of national advisers who are leading advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision and bring expertise on housing justice, advancing racial equity, and helping programs employ resources effectively to assist families out of homelessness.

Over the past six years, the Day 1 Families Fund has provided 208 grants totaling more than $630 million to organizations nationwide working on the frontlines to identify unsheltered families, help families regain housing and connect families experiencing homelessness to vital services.

The coalition said that more than half of the Day 1 Families Fund grantees who received funding between 2018 through 2021 report that, to date, they have used their grants to divert more than 28,000 families from experiencing homelessness, connect more than 30,000 unsheltered families with safe shelter and help more than 75,000 families access the services they need.

According to the coalition, the fund this year issued a total of $117.55 million in grants to 38 organizations. The fund has granted this award to organizations in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. New states this year include Arkansas, Vermont, and Wyoming.

Launched in 2018, the Bezos Day One Fund made a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.

The fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families experiencing homelessness—including those who are unsheltered or staying in shelters—regain safe, stable housing and achieve well-being.

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