Hartford Foundation Awards More Than $900,000 to Help Alleviate Homelessness in Greater Hartford

More than 1,500 Greater Hartford individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of being homeless will receive much needed assistance thanks to the work of five agencies with support of more than $900,000 in grants from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Grants were awarded to The Salvation Army ($325,000); My Sisters’ Place ($220,000); Journey Home ($199,197); ImmaCare ($174,000); and Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness ($15,000).

The region and the state have made progress to address the issue of homelessness in recent years. Homelessness among Connecticut families has steadily decreased in the Capital Region since 2009. In addition, Governor Dannel Malloy’s recently announced that Connecticut is the first state in the nation to end chronic homelessness amongst veterans. Despite these successes, the 2015 Point-in-Time Count conducted by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, and funded by the Hartford Foundation, indicates that chronic homelessness has remained relatively unchanged. The difficulty of finding and keeping affordable permanent housing is widespread.

“These grants support both short-term and long-term strategies to address homelessness,” said Sharon O’Meara, director of community investments at the Hartford Foundation. “Many families and individuals of modest means are still unable to afford current rents or spend an untenable amount of their income to secure even substandard housing. Funding will allow organizations to continue services, expand services, and create a more collaborative and coordinated way to address the issue of ending homelessness.”

Some of the projected outcomes of these proposals include:

• Over 1,300 clients to be served annually through rapid re-housing, eviction prevention, landlord negotiation and sheltering.
• Foundation funding will leverage $125,000 in municipal funds and private funds to support direct services to people who are homeless.
• Housing advocates and providers, under the leadership of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, will successfully implement the 2016 Point-in-Time Count of people without homes in the Capitol Region. Data generated will be used to advocate for increased funding for underserved groups and the development of new strategies to reach out to underserved homeless youths.
• The Coordinated Access Network, a collaboration of a majority of the region’s shelter and service providers led by Journey Home, will develop a “no wrong door” network for rapidly connecting those who are homeless with shelter, housing and supportive services.

“Homelessness is a solvable issue and the collaborative efforts of nonprofit agencies in our region demonstrate that collective action can make a big difference,” O’Meara said. “These proposals reflect a continuum of interconnected strategies ranging from sheltering to advocacy necessary to solve the problem of homelessness.”

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for Hartford and 28 surrounding communities. In 2015, the Foundation celebrated ninety years of grantmaking in the Greater Hartford region, made possible by the gifts of generous individuals, families and organizations. It has awarded grants of more than $650 million since its founding in 1925. For more information about the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, visit www.hfpg.org or call 860-548-1888.