Updated 3/4/21: Applications for the Innovative, Just, and Equitable Housing Momentum grant have closed. Open grants will be posted on the Current Grant Opportunities page and on the News + Events section of our website

Housing is a human right and yet many are denied this right. The COVID-19 pandemic and its short and long term impacts are only making this issue worse. It has also given us opportunities to build systems that support people’s wellbeing, including around housing equity and justice.

This one year grant of $15,000 grant will fund organizing that pushes against housing injustice and/or that creates different, imaginative systems so that people experiencing housing instability have agency and power in where and how they live. This funding will support strategies that address the systemic oppression that causes housing instability, houselessness, gentrification and displacement, predatory lending, evictions, and foreclosures. Organizing for housing justice may provide direct relief and assistance while building collective power to share resources, create new systems, and build leaders who can shape just housing solutions. Applications due March 3, 2021 at 3pm. Open to organizations located in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming

As with all of our grants, we welcome all proposals that fit our community organizing framework, but prioritize funding organizing led by folks most impacted by economic injustice, housing and the pandemic: people experiencing housing insecurity and houselessness; Black, Indigenous, and communities of color; immigrants; LGBTQIA+ folks; people impacted by incarceration; and people in rural areas impacted by lack of infrastructure.

This grant will fund organizing that addresses root causes of oppression, and can include organizations who also provide direct services. Work that we might fund can include but is not limited to:

• Re-entry organizing to provide housing, resources, policy, direct action, etc
• Rental & utilities assistance
• Renter organizing to create resources, rental and utilities assistance, renter’s rights training, and leadership development
• Building and strengthening housing resources and support networks for impacted communities
• Eviction prevention, intervention, and other housing policy
• Dismantling and pushing against the current oppressive housing systems and structures
• Creating collective, cooperative housing structures 
• Safe housing and resources for survivors transitioning out of abusive situations

*This grant excludes work focusing on capital campaigns

What is a Momentum Grant and Giving Project?

The Momentum Giving Projects are designed to be responsive to the “movement moment” that is happening at the time. We recognize that our grantees are organizing — strengthening communities, training activists, building analysis, developing leaders, making change — all the time. But sometimes, a spark catches. Circumstances come together so that there’s new momentum and focused attention around a particular issue.