Our Work
The Melville Charitable Trust is the largest foundation in the U.S. exclusively devoted to ending homelessness. Our grantmaking dollars are roughly split between efforts to end homelessness in our home state of Connecticut and in creating a better policy environment at the national level. For over 25 years, we have consistently and strategically invested in proven, lasting, and cost-effective solutions that enable people with the least resources to reclaim their lives. And where solutions have not yet been identified we support exploration and innovation to find the most promising approaches. Given the clear racial disparities of those most likely to experience homelessness, the Trust focuses its work through a racial equity lens, knowing that we will not end homelessness until we prevent and end it for black and brown people.
The United States is the wealthiest country in the world and yet on any one night, over half a million people don’t have a place to call home. Learn more about the state of homelessness in the U.S. and the promising solutions that will help us end this crisis.
THE ISSUEOur Approach
Homelessness is too big and too complex a problem to be approached in silos. At the core of all our grantmaking is a commitment to systems change that:
- strengthens relationships between people and between organizations
- improves ways of working together
- cultivates the public will and leadership to make change happen
Housing
Housing is key to preventing and ending homelessness. We support efforts to increase the supply of deeply affordable rental housing, expand rental subsidies, and improve access to housing for people who have a history of homelessness.

Reaching Home: Ending Homelessness in Connecticut
The first statewide campaign in the country dedicated to ending all forms of homelessness using the federal Opening Doors plan as a framework for change.
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Frog Hollow, Hartford: Investing in a Neighborhood
Our commitment to bring jobs, investment, and opportunity to Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood.
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Secure Jobs Connecticut 2.0: Helping Homeless Families Get Back to Work
A pilot to increase the income of families transitioning out of homelessness by connecting them to the resources they need to get and keep good jobs.
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Funders Together to End Homelessness: Joining Forces to End Homelessness
A national network of funders who are committed to solving homelessness.
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A Way Home America: Ending Youth Homelessness
A new movement to prevent and end homeless in for all youth and young adults in the U.S. by 2020.
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Funders for Housing and Opportunity: Making Home Affordable for All
A philanthropic collaborative committed to bettering life outcomes for the millions of Americans that lack stable housing by addressing housing affordability.
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