Real estate website Apartments.com awarded Evanston’s Connections for the Homeless a $10,000 grant last month to support the group’s efforts to keep the homeless off the streets.

Connections for the Homeless is one of five municipal organizations to win the maximum grant amount distributed through Apartment.com’s Help for Homeless grant program. Recipients were announced Dec. 9. The program was in its inaugural year and attracted applications from social activists nationwide.

“With the Apartments.com Help for Homeless Grant Program being brand new and national, we didn’t know if we had a chance,” said Joe Moag, foundation relations manager for Connections, in a news release. “However, their focus was so closely aligned to ours that we knew we had to try. And it turns out that they agreed. We will be able to do a lot to further our mission and achieve the goals of their grant program with this $10,000 in funding.”

More than 3,000 people in the northern suburbs of Cook County are homeless, Connections said. The organization serves 900 people each year from more than 30 municipalities.

The Evanston-based organization will funnel the grant into its Connections EntryPoint Street Outreach Program which focuses on moving homeless people into housing. The program also provides homeless people with living necessities such as clothing, food and health services.

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless received a $5,000 grant from the real estate website.

“Apartments.com appreciates and has the utmost respect for the hundreds of organizations that applied for funding through the inaugural Help for Homeless Grant Program,” said Susan Bryant, vice president of marketing and media sales for Apartments.com. “The need for services and support continues to grow, especially given the current economy.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @EdwardCox16