Impatient Optimists
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Topics / Family Homelessness (U.S.)

In Washington state, thousands of families with children worry about where they will sleep at night. It’s within our reach to reduce, and ultimately end, family homelessness. We work to dramatically reduce the number of homeless families in Washington state.

Learn more below and visit the program page for more details about our work in this area.

 

What Families Need to Become Rooted in Community

April 30, 2013 / Marie Sauter

This video tells Victoria’s story of reconnecting to her community after surviving domestic violence. She has been supported on that journey by the YWCA of Kitsap County, whose staff chronicles a parallel journey through organizational change.

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Thinking More Broadly About a Place to Call Home

April 10, 2013 / David Wertheimer

We know that the way to end homelessness is to house everyone. Yet, ensuring everyone has a place to call home requires a housing supply that is affordable to all, regardless of their incomes. The simplicity of this argument seems well suited to a freshman college logic course. However, the reality is not that simple.

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The Music of Ending Homelessness

March 19, 2013 / Kollin Min

A program officer on our Pacific Northwest Family Homelessness team tells a story about making a difference, and how inspired he was by a random act of kindness.

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900 Heads Are Better Than 1: Reflections on Collaboration Producing Results

February 26, 2013 / David Wertheimer

What happens when you bring together more than 900 of the nation’s leading players in the work of ending family and youth homelessness from the non-profit, government, advocacy and philanthropic sectors? Remarkable things.

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Details

Looking Ahead: A Vision for Ending Family Homelessness

January 28, 2013 / David Wertheimer

At the Gates Foundation, we’re now entering the 14th year of our work in Washington State to reduce family homelessness. That may sound like a long time, but when dealing with a problem as complex and seemingly intractable as family homelessness, time is required to find and implement changes with the potential to have real impact.

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  • "Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

  • The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

  • "The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

  • "When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

  • In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.

©2013 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation