Jacksonville nonprofit Altering Homelessness will get Jeff Bezos grant – The Florida Occasions-Union

Jacksonville-based Changing Homelessness has acquired a $2.5 million grant — the most important within the company’s almost 50-year historical past of serving struggling households in Duval and Nassau counties —  from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Day 1 Households Fund.

The nonprofit will use the cash to “leverage and enhance present household applications and fill in recognized gaps,” CEO Daybreak Gilman mentioned.

“It has been our neighborhood’s expertise that we make good progress in lowering homelessness once we persistently concentrate on enhancing housing objectives,” Gilman mentioned. “Extraordinary progress could be made once we construct and help a tradition that persistently appears to be like to enhance outcomes and doesn’t concern pivoting when offered with new info.”

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Altering Homelessness was one among 40 nonprofits in 26 states and Puerto Rico to get 2022 grants totaling $123.6 million from the Bezos Day 1 Households Fund. The initiative points annual “management awards to organizations and civic teams doing compassionate, needle-moving work to supply shelter and starvation help to deal with the instant wants of younger households,” based on the fund’s website.

Bezos, whose whole internet value as of Friday was $119 billion, No. 4 within the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, introduced the 2022 grants on his Instagram account.

“This 12 months’s Bezos Day 1 Households Fund grants go to 40 unbelievable teams working to finish homelessness within the U.S.,” he wrote. “In 5 years, we’ve given greater than $500 million to 167 orgs — serving to broaden their help of households in want. Honored to help these teams.”

Jacksonville has about 3,400 homeless folks

This 12 months’s Day 1 Households Fund grant recipients have been chosen by a gaggle of nationwide advisers, together with advocates and consultants on homelessness and repair suppliers. One different recipient was from Florida: The Chapman Partnership, which acquired $5 million as the first supplier of emergency shelter in Miami-Dade County,

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“We’re proud to be acknowledged this 12 months by an unbiased advisory group of homelessness consultants for making measurable progress on household homelessness in Northeast Florida,” Gilman mentioned.

“As we proceed to assist households navigate by way of an unsure financial system, we’re particularly grateful for the Day 1 Households Fund’s help, which is able to enable us to double down on our work to serve and supply stability for households in our neighborhood,” she mentioned.

Jacksonville has about 3,400 homeless folks, however only one,100 or so emergency shelter beds. Discovering everlasting housing stays a problem due to the persevering with reasonably priced housing disaster within the space.

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Homeless prevention applications “could make the distinction” for struggling households, mentioned Tiffany Adams, ESG-CV shopper providers group lead for Altering Homelessness. She is aware of as a result of she was one among them, she mentioned.

“Some folks have an antiquated thought of who and the way one is impacted by homelessness. It may occur to your financial institution teller, your waitress, anybody,” she mentioned. “I used to be that financial institution teller throughout the day and a waitress working the night time shift, whereas experiencing homelessness.

“Households, typically hidden, navigate neighborhood providers whereas attempting to maintain life normalized,” Adams continued. “Household applications see them and supply help tailor-made to their distinctive circumstances.”

Bezos based the Day One Fund in 2018 with a $2 billion dedication to make “significant and lasting impacts in two areas: funding present nonprofits that assist households experiencing homelessness and making a community of recent, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.” The Household Fund focuses on homeless, the separate Day 1 Academy Fund focuses on preschools.

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