Housing injustice is an increasingly pressing problem in the U.S. Between skyrocketing rents, an insufficient amount of housing, income inequality and a legacy of racist housing policies and practices, many Americans struggle with housing insecurity and homelessness. The “American dream,” of which homeownership has long been a central tenet, is now firmly out of reach for many. Renting, which was once seen as a more affordable alternative, is also becoming increasingly unaffordable.
These factors have fueled the growing housing justice movement. Housing justice centers on the belief that housing is a human right and everyone should have “affordable, safe, accessible [and] stable housing,” as the National Coalition for Housing Justice puts it.
On the philanthropic side, a number of funders, especially those that work to address the homelessness crisis, have begun funding housing justice work. Although philanthropy cannot solve all the problems plaguing the nation’s housing system, it can support things like policy advocacy, tenants’ rights and protections organizations, narrative change, and actually building more affordable housing, and funders can collaborate with each other to come up with new solutions.
To that end, here are five funders and funder collaboratives that are working to advance housing justice. This is a nonexhaustive list, but it does illustrate two noteworthy aspects of housing justice funding: the prominence of California-based efforts and a turn toward collaborative and pooled funding approaches in recent years.
Fund for an Inclusive California
Launched in 2018, the Fund for an Inclusive California is a pooled fund housed at the Common Counsel Foundation that works to address the housing crisis in the Golden State by supporting power-building and community-led organization work. Its supporters include top progressive grantmakers and community foundations in the state, like the Akonadi Foundation, California Community Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, East Bay Community Foundation, Liberty Hill Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, The California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation and Weingart Foundation.
Originally planned to last only through 2020, the pandemic prompted organizers to extend the fund’s lifespan. It announced a new round of grants totaling $1.7 million earlier this year as part of its five-year, $25 million second phase. Some of its recent grantees include North Bay Organizing Network, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Pueblo Unido Community Development Center, InnerCity Struggle, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, Housing Now! and Tenants Together.
In its second phase, the fund is focusing on the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, two areas of California that tend to receive less funding than other parts of the state.
HouseUS
HouseUS is a pooled fund takes a people-centered approach, working at the local, state and federal levels to support tenant organizing and tenant power. It seeks to address the root causes of housing inequality by funding organizing; supporting movement capacity-building, including research, communications support and policy development; and strengthening the housing justice ecosystem by helping to connect and convene organizations and funders.
Its funders include Amalgamated Foundation, the Butler Family Fund, Ford Foundation, Just Fund, Melville Charitable Trust, Oak Foundation, RRF Foundation for Aging, Sunderland Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Some of the fund’s grantees include Florida Housing Justice Alliance, Illinois’ Lift the Ban Coalition and Missouri Tenants.
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Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness
Incubated by the Michael Reese Health Trust since 2020 and comprising 30 philanthropic partners, Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness (CFTEH) shares learning and aligns resources to prevent and end homelessness. It is “locally focused and nationally connected as a network of Funders Together to End Homelessness.” CFTEH’s work includes promoting more equitable housing policies, aligning public and private resources, and shifting power to communities that are most impacted by homelessness. Collectively, CFTEH members invest almost $30 million a year.
In 2022, CFTEH launched its Housing Justice Fund. To date, it has awarded $2 million to organizations that are working to shape housing policy, increasing public and political will, and building power within affected communities. The Housing Justice Fund prioritizes Black-led and lived-experienced-led initiatives, and grew out of community feedback.
Funders that pooled resources to launch the Housing Justice Fund include Crown Family Philanthropies, Cuore e Mani Foundation, Michael Reese Health Trust, Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, the Owens Foundation, Pierce Family Foundation, RRF Foundation for Aging, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
Grantees of the Housing Justice Fund include Bring Chicago Home Coalition, Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance, Chicago Housing Justice League, Housing Action Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Not Me We, Southwest Organizing Project and Tenant Education Network.
Liberty Hill Foundation
The Los Angeles-based Liberty Hill Foundation’s grantmaking spans a number of issue areas, including racial justice, youth and transformative justice, LGBTQ and gender justice, environmental and climate justice, and economic and housing justice, among others. Through its economic and housing justice portfolio, Liberty Hill supports tenant and homeowners rights groups, as well as advocacy campaigns, such as Housing is a Human Right, which fights to increase affordable housing for rents and expand tenant protections for low-income Angelenos.
Liberty Hill Foundation backs Stay Housed L.A., which is a partnership between Los Angeles County, tenant-led community organizations and legal service providers that works to increase public awareness around tenants’ rights, outreach and education, and legal assistance for tenants. Between 2020 and 2022, Stay Housed L.A. says it was able to reach more than 900,000 tenants.
Grantees include Affordable Pasadena, Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment, Build Hope, Burbank Tenants Rights, Changing the Faces of Homelessness, Eastside LEADS, Glendale Tenants Union, Housing Long Beach, InnerCity Struggle, Inquilinos Unidos, Keep LA Housed, Long Beach Housing Justice Coalition and Pasadena Tenants Union.
San Francisco Foundation
A major California community foundation with a staunchly progressive track record in recent years, the San Francisco Foundation counts housing as one of its grantmaking focuses — unsurprising, given the Bay Area is the “most expensive housing market in the country.” The foundation sees a three-pronged path forward for housing justice: protect rents and prevent homelessness, preserve existing affordable housing, and produce more housing across all income levels.
Its priorities include tenant protection legislation, comprehensive programs to prevent homelessness, asset and wealth-building for communities of color in the Bay Area, tenant-centered preservation, protecting and improving existing affordable housing, seed funding and low-interest loans, increasing public funding for more affordable housing, racial equity and economic inclusion, and fostering collaboration.
Some of the foundation’s work in this space involves supporting and administrating Keep Oakland Housed, which provides legal representation, emergency financial assistance and supportive services to Bay area residents. Some other funders backing Keep Oakland Housed are Kaiser Permanente, and Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman’s Crankstart. The program also works in partnership with the City of Oakland and Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office.
Other San Francisco Foundation housing justice grantees include Tenants Together, Mission Economic Development Agency, Community Ownership for Community Power Fund, Oakland Community Trust, HOPE SF and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation.
