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LTHC Awarded $1.25 Million Bezos Fund Grant

Leaders at Lafayette Transitional Housing Center say they’re not yet sure just how they’ll spend a new $1.25 million grant.

The cash comes from the Day 1 Families Fund, part of an initiative launched by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2018.

The award is one of 32 given out nationwide this year, and LTHC Executive Director Jennifer Layton says her organization was invited to apply.

“It really is all about building our capacity as an agency, and really looking to our community to continue to help us do this work," Layton says. "I mean, clearly, the more funding we receive, the more people we can help. It just generally goes hand in hand.”

Layton says LTHC’S yearly budget is about $1.8 million, so the influx of cash offers her organization more flexibility to ramp up its ongoing efforts to address housing issues in greater Lafayette. 

“We don’t have the financial capacity to pay for rent for people," Layton says. "We don’t have the staff capacity to help additional families. We need to have the staff to help manage that process. We don’t have enough low-income housing to support families in their housing crisis.”

Layton says LTHC has assisted 250 families with housing issues in 2019, and that a focus on helping homeless families—in addition to homeless individuals—is becoming a priority.