Back

Columbia Bank (Honorable Mention), Tacoma, WA

Entry Year: 2019
Entry Category: Community & Economic Development
Asset Size: Medium
Program Name: Warm Homes

Program Summary:

Homelessness and hunger are key tenets of Columbia Bank’s community reinvestment initiatives. On any given night, over 37,000 people struggle with homelessness in the Pacific Northwest, sleeping outside. These people are seniors, have disabilities, and include children. Hundreds of families that are doubled up with relatives, sleeping in their cars, or caught in a housing situation that puts them at risk for domestic violence because they have no place else to go. Columbia Bank recognizes how the homelessness crisis impacts the entire Northwest and sought to find a direct way to help. In December 2015, the Bank launched its first annual Warm Hearts Winter Drive to benefit homeless shelters in local communities across its footprint in the Northwest. Since its inception, over half a million dollars and more than 25,000 warm winter items have been donated.
Based on the success of Warm Hearts, Warm Homes is an offshoot initiative that was conceived and launched in 2018. Warm Homes is a giving program providing funding for current or new entrepreneurial affordable housing solutions (temporary or low-income) combined with additional programs and services targeted at elevating low-income or underserved individuals or families out of the cycle of homelessness.
In 2018, Columbia’s Warm Homes initiative provided $200,000 in four $50,000 one-time grants to selected partner organizations – Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers, SHARE, Shared Housing Services and Mary’s Place. These ex