NJ group spends time with homeless people to connect them to services
The Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey is a nonprofit behavioral health agency that assists people who have no stable housing.
The spirit of the giving season has arrived early for four New Jersey nonprofits dedicated to ending homelessness in the Garden State.
Family Promise of Morris County and Cranford-based Monarch Housing Associates were each awarded grants of $1.25 million by the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, the philanthropy created by Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos.
The grants were announced last week. Two more New Jersey organizations, Montclair-based Family Promise of Essex County and Stafford-based Family Promise of the Jersey Shore, were awarded $425,000 each.
“This grant is transformational,” said Family Promise of Morris County CEO Joann Björnson. “We were so lucky to be chosen.”
Björnson said that unlike many other grant programs, hopeful recipients cannot apply for the Day 1 Families Fund grants, which come from a $2 billion fund established seven years ago by Bezos, the billionaire creator of the online shopping giant.
“A group of people from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and other organizations nominate you,” she said. “So this represents a nomination from our peers, so we were especially honored.”
The grant is paid over five years and must be spent directly on moving unhoused individuals and families into homes.
Family Promise of Morris County, part of a 200-affiliate national organization based in Summit, operates several support programs on a $3 million annual budget. Björnson hopes to see the usual “generous donations” that typically come in during the holiday “season of giving.”
Those donations are critical, along with funding from county, state and federal agencies, she said.
Bezos Families Fund announces 2024 awards
Bezos’ 2024 Families Fund Leadership Awards distributed a total of $110.5 million to 40 organizations from 23 states “to continue their compassionate, needle-moving work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability.”
Since 2018, the Day 1 Families Fund has awarded 248 grants totaling nearly $750 million to organizations serving families in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the fund said.
The grant administrators said family homelessness in the U.S. “rose dramatically” between 2022 and 2023. Families now represent more than 28% of the country’s unsheltered population, according to a 2024 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“With its one-time Day 1 Families Fund grant, Family Promise of Morris County will work to reverse this national trend,” a statement from the fund announced.
Family Promise of Essex County plans to use its funds to “substantially augment” the organization’s existing Rapid Rehousing program to move families from shelter to permanent housing. It also will use a portion of the funds to serve families in its Temporary Shelter program, which is dedicated to keeping families of all sizes together while in a shelter.
“We are ecstatic to receive this grant,” said Executive Director Tia Aery. “With homelessness and particularly family homelessness on the rise in Essex County, this grant comes at a critical time. These funds will allow us to help significantly more families move from homelessness to stable housing.”
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter/X: @wwesthoven
–
