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A man waits for help to move from an encampment Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, near Minute Maid Park in Houston. A worker from Coalition for the Homeless Houston waited with the man as workers cleared and cleaned the areas around his tent.<\/p>\n
Jon Shapley\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
A group of Houston-area philanthropists on Wednesday launched a $48 million fund dedicated to the \u201cnext chapter\u201d in the city\u2019s campaign to reduce homelessness.<\/p>\n
The fund, known as \u201cPathways to Independence\u201d, will focus on interventions to homelessness that are cheaper and faster than traditional housing and shelter programs<\/a>. The money, announced at City Hall, comes at a crucial time for the city, which has paid for much of its homelessness response system in recent years with pandemic- or disaster-related funding from the federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe streets will no longer be the waiting room for homeless services,\u201d said Ryan Dolibois, who leads one of the five philanthropic groups behind the fund and the committee that will oversee it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Roughly $34 million of the investment is already committed, with philanthropists working to raise the remainder.<\/p>\n The money is more flexible than the federal dollars the city has long relied on and will be aimed at populations that have generally fallen outside of existing systems. That includes interventions designed for those who have recently lost housing and people living with severe mental health or substance abuse issues, said Kelly Young, CEO of Coalition for the Homeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat philanthropy is giving us an opportunity to do is build on what the city and county have done\u2026 and serve people we haven\u2019t been able to serve before,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time outside of disaster dollars that we\u2019ve been able to expand the pie.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Houston’s homelessness strategy, hailed as a success story by other cities, is changing. Here’s how.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n