The Roberts Foundation


 

The Homeless Economic Development Foundation
c/o The Roberts Foundation
P.O. Box 29906
San Francisco, CA 94129-0906
415-561-6533

History of The Homeless Economic Development Foundation

In the summer of 1989, The Roberts Foundation, based in San Francisco, CA, began an inquiry into the issue of what it called Homeless Economic Development (HED). At that time, the majority of homeless intervention strategies supported by both public and private efforts focused upon the provision of services centered on housing stabilization and mental health/substance abuse treatment. While there were organizations providing job referral services for the homeless, efforts to expand overall economic opportunity for homeless Americans were limited to a small number of individual agencies across the country.

In January of 1990, The Roberts Foundation established the Homeless Economic Development Fund. The Fund was created with an annual budget of $1 million and the goal of expanding economic opportunity for homeless persons through the support of a variety of efforts across a broad continuum of strategies. At one end of this continuum were general support organizations providing job training and placement services to homeless persons; in the middle were agencies developing employment opportunities through the establishment of business enterprises; and at the other end were efforts to assist homeless women in the creation of small business ventures.

In August of 1993, the Fund released its first report, "Taking Economic Empowerment to the Streets." Since issuing that report, the Fund has narrowed its focus to that of working almost exclusively in the area of job creation. In its early years, the Fund involved over 40 different grantee organizations located in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1995, their work is targeting fewer than 15 organizations managing business ventures which employ homeless people. A full report on the experience and lessons learned by The Roberts Foundation will be released in June of 1996 and may be received through the Foundation at the above address.


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