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Homelessness Program Strategic Plan
2015/2016
Our Philosophy
Homelessness is a complex and challenging problem, but it is also a solvable problem. There
are many reasons a person becomes homeless and large systematic problems that lead to the
greatest number of people facing this failure in our communities. Lack of affordable housing,
income inequality, institutional racism, and inadequate mental health services are just a few of
the most common factors. The Great Recession not only contributed to the problem, but
limited our ability to respond with major cuts to our social services and housing programs.
Now is the time for us to face this issue head-on and build the will to end homelessness. We
need to invest in solutions that will stem the increases we see in our One Night Counts. We
need to develop flexible systems that can meet the unique needs of veterans, families, single
adults and youth needing assistance. Philanthropy can lead the way on these solutions and
bring about the change needed from our federal, state and local governments. The Campion
Foundation believes that homelessness is unacceptable and it will work with the government
and public to make it a rare occurrence.
Our Strategies
Strategy 1: Advocacy
Advocacy is our primary strategy in the homelessness program. Through Campion Foundation
support, our grantees continue to develop sophisticated and effective advocacy strategies on
the federal, state and local level. Government funders play the largest role in ending
homelessness in our communities and our partners’ advocacy efforts ensure that the policies
and funding are in place to make homelessness rare and temporary. This includes supporting
new revenue at the state level to continue supporting and expanding critical housing and
human service programs.
The Campion Foundation also invests in building the movement to end homelessness. This is an
issue that impacts every community, yet too often it is seen only as a problem our big cities
grapple with. To make lasting impact, we need to increase the number and diversity of voices
speaking up to end this problem. This is done through strategic recruitment and training of
advocates from different backgrounds—business leaders, religious leaders, nonprofit board
members, youth, and others from all over Washington state. Adding these voices to public
policy development could be a game changer in our approach to advocacy.
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Highlighted Advocacy Grantee—Washington Low Income Housing Alliance
The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance is the leading organization in Washington state
working on low income housing and homelessness issues. They play a critical role educating
the public and decision makers on housing issues and mobilize advocates to speak up in support
of safe, affordable housing for all. In Washington state, their keystone policy issue is the
funding of the Washington State Housing Trust Fund. This program, included in our state’s
Capital Budget, builds and preserves rental housing for low-income individuals and families.
Over 193,000 households in Washington pay half their income on housing and utilities, leaving
very little left for other essentials such as food, healthcare and child care. This year, the WLIHA
successfully secured $75 million in the state’s Capital Budget for the construction of low income
housing. They also recruited several board members from across the state to testify and
successfully passed a bill giving local communities additional options to raise revenue to
construct, maintain and operate low-income housing. Increasing the number of affordable
housing units is critical to the economic stability of our communities and prevents additional
families from slipping into homelessness.
Strategy 2 and 3: Systems Change and Leveraging Resources
It is critical that government and philanthropic funding is used efficiently and effectively. This
includes taking a close look at how services are provided and implementing programs and
policies we know work well. Investing in prevention, innovation and access to complimentary
services such as education, health care and workforce training demonstrates to our
government funders that we know how to end homelessness and money spent on human
service programs can achieve remarkable results.
Highlighted Systems Change Grantee—Building Changes and the Washington Youth and
Families Fund
Building Changes is leading the way in Washington state to design a response to homelessness
that uses evidence based programs and collaborative approaches in our communities. As a
trusted intermediary between government, philanthropy, service providers and other nonprofit
organizations, they provide the expertise necessary to make our homelessness programs as
effective as possible. One of their successful initiatives is the Washington Youth and Families
Fund, a public private partnership that uses funding allocated by the state legislature to
leverage philanthropic dollars. Over the last ten years, the $17 million invested by the state
brought in $39 million from private foundations. This funding is used to implement creative
approaches to ending family, and now youth, homelessness.
For example, the Washington Youth and Families Fund made a grant to a homelessness
diversion project in Seattle. Rather than funding emergency shelters or transitional housing,
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this project looked at families at an immediate risk of becoming homeless and used creative
financial assistance to rapidly re-house them in long-term, stable housing. In one example, the
service provider helped the family identify a market rate apartment and provided financial
assistance for the first month’s rent and security deposit. This shortened the family’s time in
the shelter system, spent less money and got the family back on track.
Strategy 4: Field Building
Traditionally, the philanthropic sector has approached homelessness by treating the symptoms,
rather than funding solutions. To meet our goals of making homelessness rare, brief and one
time, we need bring additional private sector money to the table and make sure that it is used
effectively. The Campion Foundation strategy also includes encouraging the philanthropic and
nonprofit sector to move beyond traditional methods and embrace advocacy, strategic
partnerships and collaboration to their work on homelessness.
Highlighted Field Building Grantees—Stand for Your Mission and Funders Together to End
Homelessness
Stand for Your Mission is a national campaign launched in 2014 with the ambitious goal of
inspiring nonprofit board members to take an active role in advocacy on behalf of the
organizations they represent. With over 20 million nonprofit boardmembers in our country, we
could impact public policy with the right information and tools. Aiming to change the culture of
board rooms, the Stand for Your Mission campaign will focus on developing resources and
forming partnerships with leadership organizations in the nonprofit sector. The Campion
Foundation will continue to support and promote this nationwide campaign and amplify its
efforts in Washington state.
Because no one can go it alone and we need to share what works, we are proud to be part of
the founding leadership of Funders Together to End Homelessness a national network of
philanthropic organizations working to end homelessness in their communities. They serve as a
leadership organization, working to increase coordination of effective, strategic philanthropy
and leverage resources in the public and private sector. Involving partners from across the
United States and Canada, FTEH provides education on best practices, advocacy and
collaboration as way to strengthen the impact of philanthropy leaders working on
homelessness.
Strategy 5: Partnership Development and Youth Homelessness
The Campion Foundation also identifies ways to provide leadership by convening stakeholders
and creating opportunities for government, nonprofits and philanthropy to come together to
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solve important and difficult issues. Over the next two years, we will work with partners on the
state and federal level to end youth homelessness.
Momentum exists on both the state and federal level to address youth homeless in a new,
coordinated way. Philanthropy is leading the way by forming coalitions among stakeholders to
work towards the ambitious goal of significantly reducing homelessness for youth and young
adults by the year 2020. This work will incorporate all of our current strategies—advocacy, field
building and systems change—to take full advantage of a political climate serious about
creating communities where no young person has to worry about where they are going to sleep
at night.
Federal Youth Work
The Campion Foundation is working with new partners on the federal level to focus on two
projects—developing data and assessing policy to inform decision making and increasing access
to existing programs aimed at assisting homeless youth. The Voices of Youth Count project at
Chapin Hall will spend the next two years developing data and research which can then be used
to inform policy makers at the federal, state and local level about the scope of the problem and
most effective way to address it. Additionally, we will continue to partner with several
prominent national advocacy organizations to look at the barriers young people face when
attempting to access federal programs created to help them transition into successful adults.
With our partners, we will identify strategies to improve their access to education, job training,
health care and other programs.
Washington State Youth Campaign
Building on the successes of the 2015 legislative session, the Campion Foundation will
spearhead an ongoing campaign to support the innovative work in Washington state to end
youth homelessness. The campaign will bring together partners from multiple sectors to
develop strategies to support the new Office of Homeless Youth Prevention and Protection
programs formed under the Homeless Youth Prevention and Protection Act. Increasing
coordination among advocates, community leaders and service providers will help us develop
the policy solutions, communications strategies and systems changes necessary to end youth
homelessness in our state.
For more information, please contact Sheila Babb Anderson, Program Officer, Campion
Advocacy Fund. sbanderson@campionadvocacyfund.org, 206.686.5314.