By Sara Coello scoello@postandcourier.com
Dec 9, 2020

Charleston’s largest homelessness services provider will receive a $5 million grant that supporters say will reshape their ability to help families who have lost stable shelter.

One80 Place said the grant will transform its field operations with a new nightly shelter for those in need and a chance to immediately rehouse families and give children more educational support.

It’s one of 42 nonprofits across the country that have received over $105 million in combined grants this year from the Day 1 Families Fund, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched in 2018.

One80 Place CEO Stacey Denaux said the Day 1 fund’s board invited the homelessness services agency to apply for the grant in September and sent the good news the following month.

“The gift itself is transformational,” Denaux told The Post and Courier on Wednesday. “Homelessness is an issue that can be solved with money. … If you pay people’s rent, they stay housed; we’ve tested that theory on a small scale for years.”

Housing means little if families don’t have furniture and cleaning supplies to take care of it, Denaux said, and the shelter also needs food and toiletries. The organization says on its website that a large portion of its funding comes from community donations.

No solution can come in a day, or from a particular organization, Denaux said. But having enough capital to build sustainable infrastructure, rather than focusing on triage meals and cots for unsheltered people, will help the nonprofit stop homelessness at its source.

Anything else is just playing catchup to the issue, in One80 Place’s eyes. But this gift will help Charleston’s housing-insecure families, not just to shelter, but to find stability.