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PACF grants $100,000 to support bold LifeMoves | Palo Alto housing project

Palo Alto Community Fund (PACF) has made a $100,000 Dave Mitchell Impact Grant to LifeMoves, in support of their proposed Project Homekey facility, an 88-unit transitional housing program at 1237 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto. The project is modeled after the success of the new 100-unit LifeMoves facility that opened in Mountain View in May 2021. Thank you to our donors, whose generosity makes this grant possible.

LifeMoves, a long-time nonprofit partner of PACF, has 26 sites throughout the Midpeninsula and South Bay, providing temporary shelter and intensive case management services to people experiencing homelessness. Last fiscal year, 87% of families and 65% of all clients who completed LifeMoves programs returned to stable housing and self-sufficiency. LifeMoves is expanding site-based program capacity as this is where they have the highest rate of success. They also provide outreach case management in safe parking programs for people living in vehicles, and to people living unsheltered in encampments and other places not meant for human habitation. The success rates are significantly lower in those environments.

“A warm bed at night doesn’t solve homelessness. Our wraparound services are the core of our success.” – Aubrey Merriman, CEO, LifeMoves

For the proposed LifeMoves | Palo Alto project, LifeMoves is partnering with the City of Palo Alto and has applied for Project Homekey funds from the State of California. While LifeMoves is raising money from the community through private donations, the majority of the capital costs, and some operating costs, will be covered by public funds (state, county and city.) In addition to the Palo Alto Community Fund grant, John Sobrato, founder of the Sobrato Organization, has committed a gift of $5 million dollars to the Palo Alto project. LifeMoves has additional commitments of $1.6M to date and will continue fundraising.

“We really believe this is an opportunity that only comes once in a generation. We’re excited to be part of this groundbreaking collaboration and to serve as an amplifier to catalyze broad community involvement.”  – Lisa Van Dusen, executive director, Palo Alto Community Fund

LifeMoves’ goal is to build 10 projects over five years in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to greatly increase the capacity of interim housing combined with wraparound services that are proven to help reduce homelessness.