The community of Houston, Texas has come together, adopted ambitious goals, and is delivering on them. Not only are Houstonians focused on ending chronic homelessness, they want to transform lives by keeping people housed, healthy and out of poverty with access to healthcare, workforce training and economic advancements.
One of the main thought leaders and motivators behind the progress in Houston is our partner, the Houston Endowment. Because of their generous and early assistance in key Texas initiatives we support, the Houston Endowment became one of the founding funders of the Houston Supportive Housing Capital Grant Fund.
Through the generation of grants under this Fund, new supportive housing is now available in the community. To date, the Fund’s grants have created an additional 256 supportive housing units, ensuring four important projects reached construction and opening phases.
The Capital Grant Fund has received close to $7 million from the Houston Endowment and other respected, community-minded partners including:
CSH works closely with the Houston Endowment and other donors, serving as the trusted, third-party oversight manager of the Fund. CSH’s role is to assess the capital risk for each supportive housing proposal, conduct due diligence, provide detailed analyses, and serve as the fiscal agent for the combined pool of private funding that is completing projects.
One of the evaluative criteria within the Fund’s grant program is convenient access to public transportation, employment training and job opportunities. Through its investments, the Houston Endowment has encouraged planning that ensures supportive housing development is located with the ease of access to public transport systems, employment training and job opportunities in mind.
The Houston Endowment remains committed to deploying their resources strategically to complement efforts in Houston to expand evidence-based and proven models like supportive housing, advocate for more community-based services, and align key sectors and public systems to ensure the homelessness response system is effective. Those lacking housing are assisted quickly, matched with stable, permanent homes, and then kept housed throughout their lives.
The Houston Endowment also is an important contributor to The Way Home, the Houston/Harris County Continuum of Care (CoC) that strives to prevent and end homelessness in Houston, Harris County, and Fort Bend County. Their efforts not only help CSH create housing for thousands of individuals in need of affordable places to live, they also foster partnerships and open doors to healthcare, substance use recovery, and workforce development for those in need. These services are crucial in helping supportive housing residents move closer to even greater independence.
CSH is proud to count the Houston Endowment as one of our most valued partners and looks forward to continuing to build on what has been a successful collaboration to bring supportive housing to scale in Houston.
