PROVIDENCE – Crossroads Rhode Island once again became the beneficiary of a seven-figure grant from a national program founded by former Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos.
The homelessness support nonprofit announced Tuesday that it has received a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund as part of the fund’s annual awardees across the U.S. The program awarded $118 million to 38 organizations this year and Crossroads was one of 13 organizations nationwide that received the $5 million maximum grant.
Crossroads says it received a similar $5 million grant back in 2018, which, according to the Day 1 Fund, was used from offering emergency assistance to divert families from homelessness to invest in multiple interventions, from bringing on board a housing navigator to help families in need identify safe and affordable housing.
Now, Crossroads says it will use its latest gift from the fund to help reduce the number of homeless families in Rhode Island. The money, Crossroads says, will be applied to developing more family housing, expanding programs and services, housing problem solving, temporary emergency shelter and rapid rehousing rental assistance.
“The earlier Day 1 Families Fund grant was transformative in its impact, allowing us to prevent homelessness for more than 4,600 adults and children, provide temporary emergency shelter to 1,500 and help nearly 6,000 end their homelessness and find a new place to call home,” Crossroads CEO Karen A. Santilli said in a statement. “We are excited to be able to continue serving families in need with this new round of funding.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
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