World’s richest man donates $100 million to help homeless

The world’s richest man has donated almost US$100 million to address homelessness in the US.

Three Catholic charities are among the 24 not-for-profit enterprises that will benefit from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’s newly launched philanthropic fund.

Catholic charities in one archdiocese to benefit from the funds say this will help them assist homeless people in three counties. The Community Services organisation in another archdiocese says during the next five years the funds will enable it to help 3,600 families facing homelessness.

Like the Catholic charities, all the organisations Bezos aims to help operate emergency and short-term shelters and help families move into permanent housing. Each will receive $2.5 million or $5 million from the Day 1 Families Fund.

“We hope these grants provide the additional resources these leaders and their organizations need to expand the scope and impact of their efforts,” Bezos says.

When Bezos and his wife Mackenzie launched the fund in September this year, he said it would launch with a $2 billion commitment.

This would be split between the Day 1 Families Fund — helping homeless families — and the Day 1 Academies Fund — creating a “network of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities.”

Bezos is reported as saying he wants to “shine a light and support the organisations that are doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter for young families in communities across (America).”

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