Hospitality House of Northwest North Carolina, a regional nonprofit homeless services agency working in seven rural counties, including Avery, Mitchell and Yancey, to provide housing, shelter, food access, homeless prevention, street outreach, counseling, and crisis assistance, has announced that it has received a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund—the largest gift in the organization’s history. This is the sixth round of annual Day 1 Families Fund grants, which recognize leading organizations doing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families experiencing homelessness secure housing and achieve stability.
“Housing unsheltered families has been one of our top priorities for several years now,” said Tina B. Krause, executive director of Hospitality House. “This grant will enable us to expand our solutions-based approach to ending homelessness. This award, outside of the federal and state grant system, allows us to have a more diversified funding portfolio and will open up more innovative opportunities to house families experiencing homelessness.”
This one-time, uniquely flexible grant will support Hospitality House in serving as a critical lifeline to children and adults in families experiencing homelessness, who represent more than a quarter of the homeless population nationally. Hospitality House plans to use its Day 1 Families Fund grant to expand critical life-saving shelter services to High Country families experiencing homelessness, resulting in permanent housing solutions for the seven rural counties it serves.
Launched in 2018, the Bezos Day One Fund made a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.
About Hospitality House of Northwest N.C.
Since 1984, the mission of Hospitality House of Northwest N.C. has been to rebuild lives and strengthen community by providing a safe, nurturing, healthy environment in which individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty-related crises are equipped to become self-sufficient and productive. From humble beginnings of a donated house used as a shelter on King Street in downtown Boone, N.C, the organization now operates nine housing programs across seven counties that encompass Watauga, Wilkes, Avery, Ashe, Mitchell, Yancey, and Alleghany.
