Foundation for the Future is our commitment to long-term solutions, financial resilience, and sustainable housing to ensure we continue helping our most vulnerable neighbors access permanent housing with support. Friendship Shelter’s vision is to end homelessness through permanent housing solutions. But that’s just the beginning. While ending homelessness is essential to the overall health of our community, helping our clients achieve housing stability is critical to reaching that goal.
Simultaneously, Friendship Shelter has experienced rapid growth over the past three years almost entirely in permanent housing. This growth has fueled exciting changes including helping more people to end their homelessness, but it has also created stress on our infrastructure. Government contracts that pay for these increases in programs do not cover the full cost of operating that program. Every one of our contracts leaves us with a substantial funding gap that we must bridge through private fundraising. On average, we face a shortfall of $2,000 per person per year. It’s imperative that we have the reserve funds in place to reduce our reliance on funders and the whims of federal funding.
BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION
Last year alone, our team worked with nearly 1,000 individuals in our shelters, housing, and outreach programs, and 100% of our housing tenants remained safe and stable in their homes. One of the individuals who contributed to our success is Daniel, who became homeless in 2015. Although Daniel struggled with complex physical and mental health challenges, he had one clear goal: to find a safe, permanent home, where he could work on improving his health. When a Friendship Shelter staff member met Daniel in 2024 – after 9 years of living on the street – he was dejected, in pain, and simply wanted a peaceful night’s sleep. Daniel had worked with various agencies over the years but was unsuccessful in moving out of the alleyway he was sleeping in and into permanent housing. After almost a decade of homelessness, he faced stigma which impacted his mental health and made it even more difficult to find hope in this desperate situation. But, our staff was undeterred! Daniel was of retirement age and his Friendship Shelter case worker helped him access financial benefits while connecting him with much needed health care. In January of this year, Daniel finally moved into his own apartment and is focused on getting healthy. He continues to work with our staff to ensure that he will never face homelessness again.