The Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) announced Friends of the Family and Iowa Legal Aid as winners of its second annual Innovation in Homelessness Pitch Competition. The event took place at the Housing Iowa Conference in Cedar Rapids last week, awarding a total of nearly $200,000 to groundbreaking initiatives that otherwise may not have been possible.
A total of up to $225,000 was available for the competition, with winning projects eligible for as much as $100,000 each to launch pilot initiatives with measurable impact and long-term potential. Funding was made available through IFA’s Emergency and Innovative Housing Fund. A total of eighteen proposals were submitted, with four finalists advancing to pitch their ideas to a panel of industry judges…