Since early 2020, Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness (CFTEH) has been organizing over 30 Chicago area funders to align and leverage grantmaking efforts to prevent and end homelessness in Chicago.
Now, CFTEH is launching its own grantmaking initiative with the Housing Justice Fund. Over the next two years, CFTEH will direct at least $2 million to support campaigns, coalitions, alliances, partnerships and other coordinated tables that are leading advocacy and organizing efforts to end homelessness. The fund prioritizes Black-led and lived expertise-led initiatives.
In its first round of grantmaking, $1.2 million will be given to 11 Chicago-area organizations.
“The Housing Justice Fund grew directly out of community feedback. We heard from so many partners that it is difficult to fundraise for advocacy and community organizing. The Housing Justice Fund was designed to focus on this gap in the funding landscape, and to prioritize organizations and leaders that have been historically underfunded by philanthropy,” said Emily Krisciunas, Director of Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness.
The Housing Justice Fund will support projects like:
- Grassroots organizing efforts to build public and political will to end homelessness
- Advocacy efforts to pass and enforce city, county, and state policies that ensure tenants’ access to safe, stable, affordable rental housing
- Narrative change and public awareness campaigns that amplify the stories of people with lived experience of homelessness
- Coordinated work to ensure the successful implementation of Home Illinois, the new state plan to end homelessness
“In an economy of oppression, we have a shortage of affordable housing and a crisis of greed. With the support of Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness, we will increase our capacity to organize toward systems that value life over profit and ensure all people have a home.”
Juliet de Jesus Alejandre, Executive Director of grant recipient Palenque LSNA
