Campaign to End Family Homelessness
The Campaign to End Family Homelessness is a community initiative to end family homelessness in Ada County by 2026.
The Campaign was launched by a group of driven local funders, leaders, and partners who came together to say no one, especially our families with children, should experience homelessness. No family in crisis should have to wait for the intervention we know would end their homelessness. And they were going to do something about it.
The goal of the Campaign is to do as much as we can to end family homelessness by preventing housing loss as often as possible and responding quickly to families in a housing crisis. To achieve this goal, the pooled Campaign funding is made available to partners to expand three proven interventions to help end homelessness for families with children:
- Prevention - Prevention stabilizes families and keeps them housed, thereby ensuring children don’t endure the trauma that comes from living without a home. In turn, we will be better positioned to support the families in our community currently experiencing homelessness.
- Rapid Resolution Assistance - Quick and short-term assistance for families experiencing brief economic hardships helps provide stability. This type of assistance offers families light support to gain stable housing, curbing the need for more costly interventions.
- Supportive Housing - Supportive housing provides the rental assistance and case management needed to house and stabilize families. Rental assistance helps make housing affordable, and individualized support services help keep families in housing long-term.
Join us in the Campaign to End Family Homelessness today, we need everyone’s support to make the vision of a home for every child a reality in Ada County.
- Dedicated Units Program: If you are a property owner or manager, help rehouse families with children in your units by joining Our Path Home’s Dedicated Unit Program here.
- Donate: Give directly to our Campaign partners at CATCH and Jesse Tree
- Volunteer: Get in touch with any of our partner organizations that provide services to families experiencing a housing crisis.
- Get Involved: You can get involved with Our Path Home to help build understanding about homelessness and advocate for solutions for our neighbors in Ada County, sign up for Our Path Home updates here or get in touch with us at info@ourpathhome.org.
Campaign Outcomes: Last Updated July 2021 – May 2024
The Campaign, a five-year initiative, has had a major impact since officially beginning in July 2021 with the first funding distributed to Jesse Tree, CATCH, and the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities. The community support, work of our partner agencies on the ground supporting families, and system collaborations have been critical in the success the Campaign has seen along the way.
| Campaign Year | Evictions Prevented | Families Assessed | Families Referred | Families Rehoused |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (Jul 21–Jun 22) | 290 | 221 | 45 | 62 |
| Year 2 (Jul 22–Jun 23) | 276 | 253 | 78 | 66 |
| Year 3 (Jul 23–Jun 24) | 304 | 344 | 65 | 45 |
To see more data from the initiative, head to the Campaign to End Family Homelessness Dashboard.
Campaign Funding
Collectively, the Campaign to End Family Homelessness has inspired more than $11 million of new investment into ending family homelessness since launch.
With the support of the Leadership Cabinet, Our Path Home raised just over $3.6 million for the Campaign to End Family Homelessness from 29 donors and community leaders. In addition to this, the City of Boise surpassed their original $2 million pledge by investing over $8.1 million to purchase an apartment complex that will be converted into 48 new homes that will be paired with permanent rental assistance and support services for families with children experiencing homelessness.
In the first three years, the Campaign spends almost $1.6 million to support the effort and for Year 4 Our Path Home has disbursed over $1 million directly to partner agencies to expand services. For the first four years of the Campaign to End Family Homelessness, funded partners have received a total of:
- Jesse Tree: $744,777 to provide direct assistance to families facing eviction.
- Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities: $99,896 to add staff support for households receiving rental assistance.
- CATCH: $1,286,112 to increase re-housing program capacity that provides direct financial assistance, housing navigation, and case management support.
| Campaign Year | Jesse Tree | CATCH | Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (Jul 21–Jun 22) | $117,152 | $30,900 | $35,000 |
| Year 2 (Jul 22–Jun 23) | $217,152 | - | - |
| Year 3 (Jul 23–Jun 24) | $210,500 | $470,000 | $64,896 |
| Year 4 (Jul 24–Jun 25) | $200,000 | $785,212 | $10,000 |
Year 4 And Beyond
Our Path Home faces a challenging path forward. Low supply, high demand, and rising costs of housing in Ada County created the perfect storm - making it the most difficult it has ever been to secure affordable housing units for families exiting homelessness. Our partnership had access to campaign and additional federal funds over the last few years, but now federal funds are depleted as demand for services is rising, making things even more difficult for our families in need. Adding to that, the cost to support families – both to prevent the loss of housing and get rehoused - is increasing across all partner programs, due in large part to a 35% increase in rent prices over the last three years.
In spite of increased demand, Our Path Home partners are responding by working to prevent more evictions, rehouse more families, and meet the needs of our neighbors faster than ever before. Our Path Home is staying the course to achieve our shared goal of net-zero.