Intermediary

Our Work as an Intermediary

In 2004, Building Changes was selected by the Washington State Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development to administer the Washington Families Fund (WFF), an innovative and ground breaking public-private partnership that seeks to not only provide homes and life-changing services to homeless families and children in need, but also seeks to change the way both community-based providers and state agencies think about, fund, and deliver housing linked to social services.

Building Changes is responsible for the following activities:

• Staffing the Requests for Proposals, application, and granting processes
• Raising money to grow the fund
• Providing long-term fiscal management
• Offering capacity-building training to grantees statewide
• Collecting data and evaluating the Families Fund
  
  

The Families Fund now totals over $20 million.

Grantees receive financial support for five to ten years to ensure the success of their service-enriched housing projects. To date, close to $13 million has been awarded to 36 partnerships statewide, and 522 units of service-enriched housing have been created. These funded projects will serve some 5,000 families, representing close to 12,000 parents and children, over the lifetime of the grants.

Washington Families Fund is expanding.

Building Changes has announced a bold new Washington Families Fund initiative to reduce the number of homeless families in Washington state by 50 percent by the year 2019. On March 19, 2009, the State of Washington, in collaboration with King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties, the cities of Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma and several philanthropic and corporate partners, affirmed their deep commitment to ending family homelessness by signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Under this historic agreement, all parties pledged to redouble their efforts to minimize shelter stays and provide critical, ongoing support services for homeless families with children, and to help families on the brink of homelessness. The MOU signatories also agreed to align existing family homelessness funding streams so that current resources can be used more efficiently and effectively and, where possible, to tap new resources to address the growing problem.

Investments will fund and help fund pilot programs in King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties. Pilot projects will test innovative ways to help stabilize homeless families with children, as well as those struggling to pay their mortgages or rents before they lose their homes. Lessons learned from the pilot projects will be shared with other communities across Washington state.

Five Proven Principles

Five critical, proven principles will guide this work:

Early intervention and prevention
Families in crisis and at risk of losing their homes will get short-term assistance and connected to services that will meet their needs before they become homeless. Examples include eviction prevention, landlord mediation, and financial help for families to pay overdue rent or utilities and emergency assistance for food, clothing, and transportation.

Coordinated access to support services
These services will give families seeking help an easier way to access services in the community, through one point of access to services.

Rapid re-housing
Shelters are not homes. Families will be quickly moved into permanent housing, often with short-term rental subsidies. 

Tailored programs
Every family is different. Support services will be designed to meet the unique needs every family seeking help. 

Increased economic opportunity
Housing stability depends on long-term employment. Building a strong bridge for families to education and workforce development systems will ensure families not only find housing but can sustain their housing.