(KNZA)--A local agency, "devoted to ending family homelessness and ensuring no child sleeps outside,” is granted $2.5 million from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, through Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, in order to "connect Northeast & North Central Kansas Families Experiencing Homelessness with Stable Housing and Critical Services."

The funds are awarded to Hiawatha-based NEK-CAP, Inc., a Community Action Agency that provides services and stabilization to families experiencing homelessness throughout its 16 county service area which, locally, includes Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Jackson, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Marshall, Nemaha, and Pottawatomie counties.

According to a release from the agency, family homelessness in the U.S. rose dramatically from 2022 to 2023, and families now represent more than 28 percent of the country- homeless population, according to a 2024 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, with NEK-CAP, equipped with the funding, to work toward reversing the national trend.

The release explains that the agency specifically "plans to use its funds to develop partnerships and collaborate with other entities to address short-term and long-term strategies related to ending family homelessness by employing a whole-family, strengths-based model of service delivery."

A group of national advisors who are leading experts on family homelessness and its solutions, including the intersection of homelessness and housing policy, child welfare, racial equity and service provision, identified the organizations selected for funding, with NEK-CAP, Inc. one of 40 across the nation receiving a portion of a total of $110.5 million from the Day 1 Families Fund, formed in 2018. This is the seventh year that the Fund has awarded grants to organizations across the country that are "leading the way to move the needle on family homelessness," with this being the first year to include Kansas nonprofit agencies in the funding.