PORTLAND, Ore — Portland Homeless Family Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families with children get back into housing, received a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to help end homelessness.
Brandi Tuck, the executive director, said the nonprofit has one clear mission: "Empower homeless families with children to get back into housing and stay there."
Tuck said they work toward that goal by providing homeless prevention programs, wrap-around support and their Family Village Shelter.
"It is the first shelter in Oregon designed with trauma-informed design and architecture," Tuck said. "We have room for 17 families at a time.”
The nonprofit serves more than 1,000 kids and their parents each year. Tuck said he has seen the need for services skyrocket in recent years.
"Anecdotally, if you look around, it looks like there has been a huge increase," Tuck said. "Our waitlist for shelter has increased by 50% over the last couple of years."
They’re now getting a big boost in the form of $2.5 million from the Bezos Day 1 Family Fund. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos launched the initiative in 2018 to fund nonprofits and organizations providing assistance to homeless families.
"This is by far the largest grant we’ve ever received in our organization’s history," Tuck said.
The Portland nonprofit will use the grant over the course of five years.
"About $500,000 a year to scale up and serve more families than we’ve ever had before," Tuck said. "And we’re also increasing our rapid rehousing capacity to be able to help those families move into housing and stay there."
Tuck said they're very grateful for the support to help advance their mission.
"I think housing is a basic human right and the solution to homelessness," Tuck said. "While it can include things like shelter, organized camp, the solution to homelessness is helping people move back into housing."
Portland Homeless Family Solutions is one of 32 organizations in 21 states selected for the Bezos Day 1 Family Fund. The organizations receiving the grant were chosen by a board of experts on homelessness.