The MacArthur Foundation has announced that it is awarding $100 million to the U.S. nonprofit Community Solutions to continue its work ending homelessness in communities across the country. The prize is part of the foundation’s 100&Change competition, which funds projects that promise “real and measurable progress” in solving critical global problems.
“We are so enormously grateful,” Rosanne Haggerty, the organization’s president and chief executive officer, said during a virtual event announcing the award on April 7. “In a year that we all have experienced the fragility of life, our interdependence, and the call for racial equity, ending homelessness is truly an idea whose time has come.”
Community Solutions plans to use the $100 million grant to end homelessness in 75 cities and counties across the U.S. in the next five years. The program, which has already ended chronic or veteran homelessness in 15 U.S. communities, uses real-time data to help local leaders understand the shifting dynamics of homelessness and identify potential solutions. It encourages communities to look at homelessness as a problem that can be solved rather than an inevitable reality.
