Homelessness is a major crisis throughout the state of California. In its most recent Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) placed the homeless population in California at 161,548—around 28% of the nation’s homeless population. About 70% of homeless Californians were unsheltered at the time. More alarming is the fact that HUD’s report drew its numbers from January of 2020. The pandemic has, unsurprisingly, led to further jumps in the state’s homelessness population.
By far one of the biggest contributors to the issue is the state’s long-term housing crisis. The factors driving it are many, including skyrocketing housing costs, wages that haven’t kept up with cost of living, restrictive zoning laws and too little construction. The bottom line: There isn’t anywhere near enough affordable housing and construction isn’t keeping up with demand.
A 2016 report from the McKinsey Global Institute found that more than half of the state’s households could not afford the cost of housing. Additionally, in order to meet the demand for housing and keep up with its growing population, California would need to build 3.5 million homes by 2025.
In addition to the public sector’s work on the crises, including a recent effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom to incentivize housing development, private philanthropy has also stepped up to make a difference. Those philanthropies face an uphill battle, considering their own limited resources next to public funding for housing development, and the fact that grantmakers have tried to address these problems for decades, with mixed or limited results.
In recent years, some housing philanthropies have sought to supplement longstanding funding for housing development and homeless services with money for grassroots change efforts, with an emphasis on the structural drivers of housing insecurity. This follows many years in which “housing first” served as a key mantra for funders in the space—and still does for some.
With all that in mind, here are five funders who are responding to the homelessness and housing crises in California.
Weingart Foundation
The Los Angeles-based Weingart Foundation has designated homelessness and housing justice as areas of special interest. The foundation is looking to advance systems change efforts to address the root causes of the homelessness and housing crises. It also aims to strengthen organizations that (1) work to build power for BIPOC tenants and people experiencing housing insecurity, (2) build community-based affordable and supportive housing, and (3) provide critical services. The foundation has provided more than $15 million in grants and loans over the past five years to address the homelessness crisis.
In addition, the Weingart Foundation funded a report by the Committee for Greater L.A. titled “No Going Back: Policies for an Equitable and Inclusive Los Angeles.” Among other things, the report discusses potential plans to address the housing and homelessness crises in Los Angeles. Weingart Foundation President and CEO Miguel A. Santana chairs the Committee for Greater L.A., which describes itself as a “cross-sectoral group of Angelenos” looking to “advance systems change and dismantle the institutions and policies that have perpetuated institutional racism.”
California Community Foundation
The California Community Foundation (CCF) focuses its work on Los Angeles County, and housing is one of its key funding areas. For CCF, addressing the city’s homelessness crisis means supporting affordable housing, job training, case management and healthcare. The foundation’s housing program consists of grantmaking, lending and advocacy to support housing services for homeless individuals and to create more affordable housing.
In 2016, CCF co-led a campaign to pass two ballot measures resulting in a 10-year, $5 billion public investment to address homelessness. The same year, CCF partnered with housing providers, lenders and foundations to commit to build 1,000 units of supportive housing a year, more than tripling the city’s goal. Since 2000, CCF has contributed more than $30 million to address housing and homelessness.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has been a consistent funder of housing and homelessness initiatives in the Bay Area. In 2019, it helped launch the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, a $500 million fund to build 8,000 new affordable homes and preserve an additional 175,000 households over five to 10 years. The fund’s partners include the San Francisco Foundation and the Ford Foundation. In addition, CZI invested $5 million and partnered with the housing startup Landed to prevent housing costs from driving teachers from Silicon Valley.
CZI is also part of the Bay Area Homelessness Funders Network, a partnership between Northern California Grantmakers and Funders to End Homelessness, a national network. As part of the network, CZI, along with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, fiscally supports the California Homelessness and Housing Policy Funders Network.
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation believes that addressing homelessness requires funding more than direct programs and services. Instead, the foundation wants to address the economic and systemic barriers that lead to homelessness in the first place. Its current focus is to prioritize populations at the greatest risk of experiencing long-term homelessness, to center permanent housing and services, to make both systems and services people-centered, and to share best practices and lessons with other cities.
In addition to fiscally sponsoring the California Homelessness and Housing Policy Funders Network alongside CZI, the Hilton Foundation has a three-phase strategy to address chronic homelessness in the county. Grantmaking within its homelessness program totals $46,730,000.
San Francisco Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation (SFF) says it is “all-in on housing.” It has developed a set of strategies to address housing and homelessness in the Bay Area. These are: to protect renters and prevent homelessness for vulnerable groups, which disproportionately includes Black and brown families; to preserve and renovate already affordable homes; and to produce affordable new homes.
SFF supports a diverse group of programs focused on housing, including the Bay Area Community Impact Fund, the Foundation Alliance with Interfaith to Heal Society, the Great Communities Collaborative, and HOPE SF, among others. Alongside CZI, SFF is also one of the leaders of the Partnership for the Bay’s Future.
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California’s housing crisis—and the nation’s housing crisis—is one of those entrenched problems that continually defy philanthropy. While it’s encouraging to see these grantmakers and others place greater emphasis on root causes and attempt to stitch together California’s patchwork of jurisdictions and service providers, it remains to be seen whether any of this will meaningfully slow the growth of the state’s homeless population.
Both within and outside California, other philanthropies engaged in housing work face the same question. A few other big names we’re following include the Melville Charitable Trust, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Crankstart Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.
For more information about funders working in these spaces, check out Inside Philanthropy’s State of American Philanthropy report on giving for housing and homelessness.