FRE June 2019

A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

June 2019

During our June call, we heard from Lisa Coffman at HUD and Joe Savage at USICH about the racial equity work their agencies are undertaking. Lisa shared some information about the upcoming NOFA and her thoughts on how funders can be good partners in this work. Joe shared a bit about USICH's upcoming racial equity guide and what kind of support he thinks CoCs can use related to addressing racial disparities in the homelessness system.

Pre-work

Give some thought about whether there’s anything related to racial equity and homelessness work you’re doing that you think would be good to share with HUD or USICH. During introductions, there will be some time to share one answer per organization.

Meeting Materials

Agenda
Notes
Call Recording at bottom of page

Resources Mentioned during the Call

Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness
A Way Home Canada project being co-supported by PetSmart Charities Canada
A Way Home America Grand Challenge
HUD CoC racial equity analysis tool
NAEH tool to help communities look at program data (click link on page to download): https://endhomelessness.org/resource/the-alliances-racial-equity-network-toolkit/

Questions from Your Peers

From Russ: What communities are starting to look at the VI-SPDAT with a racial equity lens?
- Los Angeles, King County, Santa Clara
From Michael: I’m curious what people are hearing about the shift toward coordinated access - some partners I talk to think that despite the good intention behind this it can mean POC are not well served or miss out on opportunities to get help.
- HUD would be interested in hearing about that, too. Understanding that communities may think that they will be penalized for being candid with us, they will not be. We want to hear what people are finding as they use coordinated entry.
From Julie: What jurisdictions avail themselves of Category 3?
From Christy: Have you seen effective models for bringing people of color with lived experience to key philanthropy tables? I'm all for holding agencies accountable, but we as a sector need to get our own houses in order as well.
- Julie: my grantmaking board is comprised of all but one POC most are PWLEH; this board is the pipeline for our Board of Trustees- happy to talk

Call recording below:

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We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation