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

Health System Funders for Housing Justice

The Health System Funders for Housing Justice is generously supported by CommonSpirit Health.   

Overview 

During COVID, we have seen how important housing is to allow people to safely social distance from others and practice safe hygiene activities, such as handwashing, in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Given that an analysis on unemployment projects a 40-45% increase in homelessness, it will take coordinated, collaborative efforts to prevent people from becoming homeless, to support the healthcare needs of people currently experiencing homelessness, and to move people experiencing homelessness into safe, stable housing. 

Funders Together to End Homelessness, with the generous support of CommonSpirit Health, is launching the Health System Funders for Housing Justice, which will center on the inextricable link between healthcare and homelessness systems and the belief that housing is healthcare. 

Network Goals 

Health System Funders for Housing Justice participants will: 

  • Map out and prioritize opportunities for health systems to have an impact on the homelessness system at state and national levels 
  • Create an action agenda for the network that includes investment opportunities, advocacy and policy priorities, and partnership recommendations 
  • Build trust and a structure among participants for sustained collaboration after Funders Together’s facilitation formally ends 

Who should participate? 

This network is open to health systems interested in coordinating resources and strategies to better prevent and end homelessness. Individual participants must meet the following criteria:  

  • Believe that housing is healthcare and understand how homelessness and housing instability affect health outcomes. 
  • Have positional authority in their organization to direct or influence how investments are made at a regional or national level. 
  • Have positional authority in their organization to engage in or direct the engagement of policy and advocacy activities.  
  • Be able and willing to meet the participant expectations outlined below. 

Participant Expectations 

The success of this community of practice depends on the full commitment of each participant. While we understand that conflicts will always arise, we also hope participants will commit to: 

  • Participating in a pre-survey, an intake interview, and other periodic check-in calls with facilitators.  
  • Attending monthly videoconference meetings and biannual virtual convenings. 
  • Sharing and learning in real time with peers and colleagues. 

How to Join 

If you are interested in joining the Health System Funders for Housing Justice or have any questions about the network, please reach out to Michael Durham at [email protected]. 

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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

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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

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-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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