Houston foundations raise $34 million toward a $48 million plan to resolve homelessness faster
Pathways to Independence, announced Oct. 7 with the city, Harris County and the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, is a three-year effort to give people quicker, more flexible help than federal housing programs allow.
Houston. Five Houston foundations have put up most of the money for a three-year, $48 million effort to move people out of homelessness faster, local leaders announced on Oct. 7. The initiative, Pathways to Independence, has raised $34 million so far, or 70 percent of its goal, according to the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, the nonprofit that coordinates it.
The first funders are The Brown Foundation, the Cullen Foundation, Houston Endowment, the Kinder Foundation and the Sarofim Foundation. The money is held in the Homelessness Strategic Philanthropy Fund, a component fund of Greater Houston Community Foundation, which will make grants in line with the initiative's approved strategy. The plan was created with the City of Houston and Harris County and was unveiled at City Hall, Houston Public Media reported.
Help that does not fit federal rules
The coalition leads The Way Home, the region's federally funded homeless response system covering Houston, Harris County, Fort Bend County and Montgomery County, which it says has housed more than 38,000 people. Houston Public Media reported that the coalition oversees about $70 million a year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, money that comes with rules on how it is spent.
About 5,700 people experiencing homelessness seek help in the region each year, the coalition says, and about 60 percent could regain stability sooner with faster, more flexible support. The new fund is meant for them: rental help, help getting home to family, or a repaired car that keeps a person at work. It also pays for more street outreach with public safety partners, places where people can walk in for help, employment and recovery services, and work with hospitals and the criminal justice system.
“Not everyone requires, or can qualify for, permanent housing programs to resolve their homelessness. P2I is designed for people our existing resources cannot currently reach quickly or effectively.”
After three years
The initiative aims to end street homelessness and to give everyone who becomes homeless a path to resolution within 90 days. An executive leadership committee chaired by Ryan Dolibois, executive director of the Sarofim Foundation, sets its direction. The coalition says the three years are a proof of concept, after which it means to secure public funding for the approaches that work.
Mayor John Whitmire tied the effort to 419 Emancipation, the city's new center that helps people move off the streets and connects them to treatment and housing. Mike Nichols, the city's housing director, told Houston Public Media that more than 420 people have been served there since it opened in late May, about 110 of them placed successfully and about 150 with unknown outcomes.
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