The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative launched the Housing Innovation Challenge on Thursday, a call for proposals that will award $4.5 million from the Measure H Housing Innovation Fund for creative and scalable permanent housing solutions for homeless people the county.

Concurrently, the Watt Family Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles launched the L.A. Homelessness Challenge, which will award $400,000 for proposals to offer innovative service models for people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County.

At a time of heightened partnership and collaboration in the region, these two efforts are designed to inspire and activate stakeholders and creative strategists across the region to contribute sustainable solutions to homelessness.

The Housing Innovation Challenge will make multiple $500,000 or $1 million awards for faster, cost-effective construction/rehabilitation and/or creative finance models to produce permanent housing for the county’s most vulnerable residents.

Projects must result in the production of permanent housing for homeless families or individuals in L.A. County.

The L.A. Homelessness Challenge is a partnership between the Watt Family Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles, with administration from the Home For Good Funders Collaborative.

Now in its sixth year, the Funders Collaborative has coordinated investments from leading private and public funders to spark ideas, concepts, and systems that have gone on to become local and national standards.

The competition aims to deliver a pipeline of service delivery solutions that can easily expand with more support. Two awards of $200,000 will be provided.

“These Challenges come at a critical juncture in the Countywide movement to combat and prevent homelessness,” said Phil Ansell, Director, Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative. “While the first decrease in the Homeless Count numbers in four years is encouraging, there is a great deal of work ahead. The Housing Innovation Challenge is a unique opportunity to solicit new approaches and continue to advance our efforts to help people move from homelessness to housing.”

“We’re lucky to have a strong set of existing plans and solutions, and we’re thrilled to welcome the brightest thinkers and practitioners to push us even further,” said Chris Ko, Director of Homeless Initiatives, United Way of Greater Los Angeles. “Innovation comes in many forms, and just as much as new ideas, this is a call for models and approaches to deliver what’s working more efficiently and effectively.”

“By funding awards through the L.A. Homelessness Challenge, we are optimistic that we will be able to find groundbreaking and scalable solutions that will provide tremendous relief to the thousands of homeless people in our County, and ultimately, ease us out of this crisis once and for all,” said Nadine Watt, president of Watt Companies.

For more information and to apply:

Housing Innovation Challenge
Applicants must register on the website by September 5, 2018. Eligible organizations must submit their proposals by October 2, 2018.

To learn more or to register for the Housing Innovation Challenge, please visit housinginnovationchallenge.com.

L.A. Homelessness Challenge
To participate, applicants must first register on the website by August 21, 2018. Then they must complete a substantive online application, detailing the solution and budget by September 5, 2018.

To learn more or to register to apply to the L.A. Homelessness Challenge, please visit lahomelessnesschallenge.org.