Watt Family Sponsors LA Homelessness Challenge

Competition rewards the most innovative and scalable approaches to services for the homeless population in LA.

Los Angeles, Calif. (May 15, 2018)—The Watt Family is awarding a total of $350,000 to implement two winning ideas selected through the LA Homelessness Challenge, a competition to reward scalable service models and game-changing solutions to serve those experiencing homelessness in LA County.

Los Angeles currently has the largest population of chronically homeless residents in the nation, a distinction that has become an identifying mark for the city and a rallying point for people fighting against this growing crisis. “For 70 years, our family has been building homes for Angelenos. We understand the importance of having a safe and welcoming place to live,” said Nadine Watt, President of Watt Companies. “By funding awards through the LA Homelessness Challenge, we are optimistic that we will be able to find groundbreaking and scalable solutions that will provide tremendous relief to the thousands of homeless people in our City, and ultimately, ease us out of this crisis once and for all.”

The LA Homelessness Challenge is a partnership between United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Home for Good Funders Collaborative, and the Watt Family. To select the winners, the LA Homelessness Challenge brings together a panel of foundations and other private and public organizations committed to alleviating the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. Through this competition, we aim to deliver a pipeline of solutions that can easily expand with more support. Each proposal will be read by a panel of judges, and all applicants will be provided with comments and feedback to further develop each solution, regardless of whether the idea is selected as a winner.

At a time when the voters of Los Angeles have agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tackle homelessness through Measures H and HHH, we must ask those serving our homeless population to consider how to scale. Many have struggled on the front lines of this cause with limited support for too long, and as the wave of new public funding approaches, now is the time to consider how expansion brings its own set of unique challenges. Applicants must have at least one or more team members with experience working with homelessness in Los Angeles County.

To learn more or register to apply, please visit www.lahomelessnesschallenge.org.