Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Topics / Urban Poverty

As the world undergoes the largest wave of urban growth in history, there is a tremendous opportunity to improve the lives of the more than one billion poor people living in cities. The world's cities are growing rapidly and ther is a pressing need to provide housing, health, and social services for the urban poor. We aim to improve the lives of the urban poor by giving them the tools to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and create livable and prosperous cities in the developing world.

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

Thinking More Broadly About a Place to Call Home

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

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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Looking Ahead: A Vision for Ending Family Homelessness

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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Building Community Philanthropy

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is expanding our investments in community based philanthropy in the Pacific Northwest. In 2012, a total of 16 community philanthropy partners have been granted funds to support local solutions to reducing intergenerational
poverty.

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We Have the Power to Change the Rules

The rules have created a social and economic system that clearly does not work for the majority of the world’s people.

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