The Mercy Foundation Grants to End Homelessness are available for
seeding initiatives, services, projects, advocacy and research that will
contribute to the goal of ending homelessness by supporting housing
first and permanent supportive housing solutions. Projects that focus on
chronic homelessness and women who experience chronic homelessness are
currently priority areas for funding. These will generally be larger
grants (up to $50,000 for any one year) with grants likely to be
averaging $20,000 - $30,000.
Chronic homelessness is defined as an episode of homelessness lasting
6 months or longer or multiple episodes of homelessness over a 12 month
period or more. People who experience chronic homelessness are likely
to have 'complex needs', which usually means that they have one or more
of the following:
- developmental disability
- traumatic brain injury
- serious physical health problems
- history of abuse or trauma
- mental illness
- mental disorder
- psychiatric disability
- addictions.
Applicants must be able to specify measurable outcomes from the
initiative. Those outcomes will need to show that the project has
contributed to ending chronic homelessness or contributed substantially
to increasing knowledge about the pathways into and out of homelessness –
thereby increasing our understanding of how to prevent and how to end
homelessness. All applications will need to outline their evaluation
strategy and make clear how such outcomes will be measured.
Applicants must be a legal entity, such as an incorporated
association or company. If not, the applicant will need to be auspiced
by an appropriate organisation. Unfortunately at this time, the Mercy
Foundation is unable to fund services or projects which require
recurrent or indefinite funding. However, depending on the project and
its assessed contribution to meeting the objectives of these grants, the
Mercy Foundation could choose to fund a project again the following
year (subject to a further application). This can only happen in very special circumstances and should not be expected, but if a solid case is made then it might be considered.
