Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County announced Wednesday that it had received a $2.5 million grant from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez through the Bezos Day One Families Fund.

The Day One Families Fund is part of the Bezos Day One Fund, launched in 2018 by Bezos and his wife at the time, MacKenzie Scott. The Fund makes yearly donations to organizations and civic groups in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, working to help homeless families.

This year, the Fund’s seventh annual donation totaled $110.5 million and was disturbed to 40 organizations, with the Alliance being the only Illinois awardee. This is the first year the Alliance has received any money from the Fund.

The funding, according to Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Alliance, will provide five years of support. The Alliance will keep $500,000, while the other $2 million will be given to other organizations for their outreach and service efforts, she said.

The Alliance’s Point-in-Time Count estimated 114 unsheltered homeless people in suburban Cook County in 2024, a 58% increase from 2023.

“Homelessness can be invisible in the suburbs,” Hill said. “People don’t necessarily know that it’s a problem, but it’s a growing problem. So for us to be in this position where we can help support other programs to resolve the homeless situation for so many families, that was just amazing news.”

Specifically, the Alliance will use the funds for street outreach, diversion, emergency shelter, flexible rental assistance and housing stability services, according to a Wednesday news release.

The Alliance has over 40 member agencies, including Connections for The Homeless and Impact Behavioral Health Partners, and leads the Cook County Continuum of Care.

Ald. Devon Reid (8th) told The Daily he’s very passionate about the homelessness issue in Evanston. When he was 12 years old, he and his grandmother were unhoused and forced to leave the city.

Reid recounted his time transitioning from middle class suburbia to a shelter on the south side of Chicago, calling it an “eye-opening experience.”

“No city in America is doing enough to address homelessness,” he said. “Really, it is a national issue that the federal government is going to have to use its almost unlimited power of the purse strings to help municipalities across the nation solve this issue.”

Reid drafted a $1.75 million funding proposal earlier this year to address homelessness in Evanston, but City Council did not approve it.

Homelessness is an issue that also hits close to home for board member and previous Alliance Chair Monique Williams, as she and her family were once unhoused. She said the grant excites her and that feeling as though nobody cared about her family’s crisis propelled her into the work she does today.

“’I’ve been here for many years and the Alliance has grown and grown so much,” she said. “So (the grant is) kind of a reminder that my work wasn’t in vain, that the time and effort that I’ve spent on committees, and volunteering, and all of these things actually is growing this organization.”

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