We’re launching our 2024 end of year campaign!
WE ARE LAUNCHING OUR 2024 END OF YEAR CAMPAIGN WITH THE GOAL OF RAISING $75,000 BY THE END OF THE YEAR FOR THE 1,446 CHILDREN UNDER 18 WE SERVE. MAKE YOUR DONATION TODAY.
At Housing Up, December is our most important fundraising time of the year and this year, we’re raising funds to sustain our youth enrichment program, which provides education and development resources the kids in our programs need to thrive, including our free, 6-week summer camp. The more than 900 families in our programs – whose kids benefit from our youth enrichment program – are traveling the difficult road of maintaining their safe and affordable housing and deserve a strong community of support.
According to the 2024 Point-in-Time Count, a physical count of people experiencing homelessness in DC on a given night in January, there are 2,163 children in families experiencing homelessness, representing 22% of the DMV region’s total population of people experiencing homelessness. Children account for 62% of all people in families experiencing homelessness. Family homelessness rose 39% in Washington, DC last year. These statistics are staggering, and we need your help now more than ever.
Housing Up relies on your support exclusively to support our youth enrichment program, which is key to our kids’ success. Youth who experience housing insecurity tend to underperform academically and are more likely to drop out of high school when they get older. The children in these families need additional resources to ensure their educational success, to create positive environments to learn and grow, and to envision a future that includes higher education and economic independence.
Your generosity makes a big impact on our families. A cornerstone of our youth enrichment program is our free, 6-week summer camp. One of the many families you’ve helped is Edvin and his daughters, Valeria and Briana. Before the pandemic, our resident services program referred families to affordable summer programming options in the community but over the past few years, those offerings have grown sparse. Enter Camp Housing Up: our 4-day-a-week, free summer camp that supported nearly 30 kids in 2024. Because Edvin has a job during the day, he needs somewhere safe, fun and enriching for his daughters to go during the summer. Without Camp Housing Up, he isn’t sure what he would do. Funding from supporters like you allowed campers to take 5 field trips this summer, including watching the Mystics play. After the field trip, Edvin’s daughter told him she wants to learn how to play basketball.
This is just one of our amazing families’ stories, but their success really begins with you. Your financial support will help us provide joy and enrichment to kids all year long. Make your secure, tax-deductible donation to Housing Up today.