Latest news with #ConradN.HiltonFoundation
Business Wire
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Marking the 30th Anniversary of the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, International Jury Selects Mines Advisory Group as the 2025 Prize Recipient
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation today announced that the Mines Advisory Group — a humanitarian, development and peacebuilding organization focused on landmine removal and armed violence reduction in communities affected by conflict — has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Since 1989, the Mines Advisory Group has helped over 23 million people in more than 70 countries rebuild their lives after war. It has played a leading role in the international effort to prevent the use of landmines — saving countless lives, protecting human rights and contributing to sustainable peace for communities across the world. The Mines Advisory Group was chosen through the same deliberative process that has defined the Prize for three decades. The Hilton Foundation reviews nomination submissions from nonprofits throughout the world, and an independent, international panel of distinguished jurors makes the final selection after a rigorous vetting process. The following individuals served on the 2025 Hilton Humanitarian Prize jury: The Right Honorable Helen Clark; Leymah Gbowee; Conrad N. Hilton III; Sister Joyce Meyer; Her Majesty Queen Noor; Kennedy Odede; Zainab Salbi; and Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León. 'The selection of the Mines Advisory Group as this year's Hilton Humanitarian Prize recipient serves as a reminder that compassion and peace should still be at the top of our global agenda,' said Peter Laugharn, President and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. 'Through its extraordinary efforts to help communities return to safety and prosperity after conflict, the Mines Advisory Group exemplifies the kind of humanitarian excellence our Prize has sought to celebrate and inspire over the last three decades.' Today, amidst rising levels of geopolitical conflict — and humanitarian needs — the need to uplift nonprofit organizations on the frontlines has never been greater. This year's Prize, therefore, honors the Mines Advisory Group for its work to address the lasting and devastating impacts that landmines, unexploded ordnance and armed violence have on human lives and post-conflict development. In 2023, more than 8 out of 10 landmine casualties were civilians, and more than a third of civilian casualties were children. Landmines and other explosive weapons are still being used in conflicts today, including in Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. 'For 35 years, MAG has stood resolute in its mission to respond to the urgent needs of people in communities ravaged by conflict and in places still grappling with conflict's legacy, long after the wars have ended,' said Darren Cormack, Chief Executive of the Mines Advisory Group. 'We're honored to receive the Hilton Humanitarian Prize in recognition of the tireless and courageous work of our global staff. Our hope is that this spotlight can help underscore the fundamental human right to live free from the fear of landmines and armed violence. Every landmine cleared is a life saved, a community restored and a future reclaimed.' The Mines Advisory Group is working to counteract and raise awareness of this growing threat through a community-centered approach to landmine removal, armed violence reduction programming and international advocacy. The vast majority of the organization's 5,500 staff come from communities that have been directly affected by conflict. In 1997, the nonprofit was a co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize for its founding role in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines that led to the formation of the landmark Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) — also known as the Ottawa Treaty. 'As levels of conflict rise across the world and as several countries have expressed intent to exit the Ottawa Treaty amidst escalating conflict in Eastern Europe, our work has never been more important,' said Shari Bryan, Executive Director of the Mines Advisory Group U.S. 'The Hilton Humanitarian Prize will enable us to better meet the needs of this moment. Using the Prize funding, our team will be able to invest in research and innovation to deepen our impact, respond to emergency contexts and secure sustainable funding to carry our work forward.' As the largest annual humanitarian award for nonprofits, the Prize shines a light on extraordinary organizations innovating, advocating and creating change to improve the lives of people experiencing disadvantage throughout the world. Since 1996, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize has awarded $46.5 million to 29 nonprofit organizations working in some of the world's most challenging environments. While the landscape for humanitarian aid and philanthropy continues to evolve, the legacy of the Prize underscores an enduring commitment to celebrating humanitarian leadership and inspiring greater action to alleviate human suffering worldwide. The Prize's unrestricted funding award will increase from $2.5 million to $3 million this year to mark the 30th anniversary. The 2025 Prize Ceremony honoring Mines Advisory Group will take place during the 30th Anniversary Event this October in New York, NY, USA. Nominations for the Hilton Humanitarian Prize are open year-round. About the Hilton Foundation Founded by international hotelier Conrad N. Hilton in 1944, the Foundation invests in organizations tackling some of the world's toughest challenges. We think big about solutions, working in partnership with local communities to improve lives, strengthen systems, and advocate for change. The Foundation partners with organizations worldwide, with a special focus on Africa, South America, and the United States, including our home in Los Angeles. Additionally, the Foundation is proud to fund the world's largest annual humanitarian prize for nonprofits — the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. For 30 years, the Prize has recognized nonprofit organizations setting a global benchmark for excellence and advancing the collective progress of humanity. Visit our website for more information. The Mines Advisory Group is a global humanitarian and advocacy organization that finds, removes and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict. It also provides education programs, particularly for children, so people can live, work and play as safely as possible until they clear the land. The organization also delivers work to reduce armed violence by educating people about the risks of small arms and light weapons and by destroying and marking weapons and helping authorities to safely store arms and ammunition to prevent their diversion and to protect communities from unplanned explosions. Since 1989, the Mines Advisory Group has helped over 23 million people in 70-plus countries rebuild their lives after war. In 1997, the Mines Advisory Group shared the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in banning landmines. More info: Mines Advisory Group International and Mines Advisory Group US.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Failure of Skid Row landlord 'canary in the coal mine' for other homeless housing in Los Angeles, report says
The failure of one of Skid Row's largest homeless housing providers represents a dire warning for the viability of supportive housing in Los Angeles, according to a new report on the organization's demise. Released Wednesday, Redesign Required: Lessons for Permanent Supportive Housing from Skid Row Housing Trust Buildings, concludes that low and inconsistent rental subsidies and other structural problems in L.A.'s homeless housing systems played a key role in the trust's 2023 collapse. Without major changes, other supportive housing providers remain at risk, imperiling housing for thousands of the region's most vulnerable residents and exposing taxpayers to further bailouts, said Claire Knowlton, a Los Angeles-based financial consultant for nonprofits and the report's lead author. 'This is a wake-up call,' Knowlton said. 'It's time to dig in and figure out a vision for this sector moving forward.' Read more: A homeless housing nonprofit's buildings are in shambles. City plans intervention Once considered a national leader in homeless housing, the trust announced in early 2023 it could no longer manage its 2,000 units across 29 properties, many of which were renovated, century-old single-room occupancy hotels in and around Skid Row. The decision came after years of financial trouble with buildings in disrepair and disarray, replete with squatters, crime, nonfunctional elevators and clogged and broken toilets. City of Los Angeles leaders pushed the trust into receivership and, after 18 months, all the properties were transferred to new owners. The city allocated nearly $40 million to finance the receivership, though the new owners reimbursed some of the money upon taking control. The trust declared bankruptcy and dissolved in January. Researchers received access to the trust's internal financial data and interviewed more than 30 people, including former trust executives and those knowledgeable about its operations, to produce the report. The report, which was funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, is not meant to be a definitive understanding of the trust's failure, Knowlton said. Times reporting has shown questionable decision-making, financial mismanagement and unstable leadership marked the organization's final few years. The report did not examine specific actions made by trust executives. Joanne Cordero, the trust's final CEO who took over amid its spiral in late 2022, was a co-author. Read more: Bad bets, dysfunction: Inside the collapse of the Skid Row Housing Trust The root of the trust's problems, the report determined, was that tenants' public rental subsidies did not provide enough revenue to manage the buildings, including costs needed to assist those dealing with mental illness and drug addiction. All trust properties, including newer buildings with studio and one-bedroom apartments, were running annual deficits — nearly $1 million in one case — once factoring in long-term maintenance expenses, the report found. Not only were the rental subsidies insufficient to cover costs, but also the funding came through multiple programs that paid the trust wildly disparate rates for rooms without any clear way to increase them. Similar trust buildings received subsidies priced at a difference of up to $600 per unit per month. The report called the calculation of these rates 'cryptic' and their variability 'indefensible.' 'The subsidies are not covering the cost,' Knowlton said. 'The increases are inconsistent. The subsidy types are inconsistent, and there's no reason.' The report cites 2015 as a turning point for trust properties. That year, the region implemented a new coordinated entry system for placing homeless residents into trust buildings and other supportive housing through a process designed to prioritize rooms for the neediest. The system has been criticized broadly among homeless housing providers for taking too long to match potential residents with units and for concentrating too many people with mental illness, physical disabilities and addiction problems within buildings. After its implementation, vacancies in trust buildings skyrocketed, which further sapped the organization's revenues. Spending on security immediately jumped from $50,000 annually prior to 2016 to well over $500,000 after, and ultimately soaring above $1.4 million by 2022. Knowlton said she could not determine that the coordinated entry system was the source of these problems as other factors played a role. The portfolio's vacancies were stabilizing until staffing and maintenance woes amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 sent them spiraling. Deteriorating conditions in Skid Row broadly over the same period also could explain the greater security needs, she said. Still, Knowlton said that local leaders should reevaluate decisions to house those with the most severe health problems in single-room occupancy hotels, which have shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. 'I don't think single-room occupancy is the right type of housing for people with high levels of mental health needs or extreme substance use issues,' she said. Read more: The end of Skid Row's cheap hotels? L.A. leaders want to replace last-resort homeless housing Reaching similar conclusions during the receivership, city housing officials advocated for tearing down trust SROs and replacing them with new efficiency and one-bedroom apartment buildings, but they abandoned that plan as too risky, expensive and disruptive. Knowlton is pushing to overhaul the region's system for funding supportive housing, noting that the problems she identified were universal. Rent subsidies, Knowlton said, should be set to the cost of providing supportive housing, including social services. Doing so, however, would require significant and ongoing funding boosts at the federal level, which she deemed 'extremely ambitious.' In the short term, she argued government agencies should increase and standardize the subsidies to reduce their variability. 'That's going to give us the time and the cushion that we need to really set that longer term vision around how these buildings are stewarded as public assets, as community assets, because that's what they are,' she said. The alternative could be worse, she said. Other supportive housing providers have shown signs of stress. SRO Housing Corp., a similar nonprofit landlord operating 30 supportive housing buildings with a large presence in Skid Row, has documented its financial challenges for years. In December, tenants at one building alleged vermin infestations, broken elevators and sewage leaks in a lawsuit. When the trust failed, the city stepped in to save critical last-resort housing, but at great cost to taxpayers and without resolving underlying problems in the supportive housing system, Knowlton said. Federal, state and local leaders should do everything they can to avoid a similar situation from occurring again, she said. The trust's collapse, Knowlton said, was, 'a canary in the coal mine situation.' Times staff writer Douglas Smith contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Failure of Skid Row landlord ‘canary in the coal mine' for other homeless housing in Los Angeles, report says
The failure of one of Skid Row's largest homeless housing providers represents a dire warning for the viability of supportive housing in Los Angeles, according to a new report on the organization's demise. Released Wednesday, Redesign Required: Lessons for Permanent Supportive Housing from Skid Row Housing Trust Buildings, concludes that low and inconsistent rental subsidies and other structural problems in L.A.'s homeless housing systems played a key role in the trust's 2023 collapse. Without major changes, other supportive housing providers remain at risk, imperiling housing for thousands of the region's most vulnerable residents and exposing taxpayers to further bailouts, said Claire Knowlton, a Los Angeles-based financial consultant for nonprofits and the report's lead author. 'This is a wake-up call,' Knowlton said. 'It's time to dig in and figure out a vision for this sector moving forward.' Once considered a national leader in homeless housing, the trust announced in early 2023 it could no longer manage its 2,000 units across 29 properties, many of which were renovated, century-old single-room occupancy hotels in and around Skid Row. The decision came after years of financial trouble with buildings in disrepair and disarray, replete with squatters, crime, nonfunctional elevators and clogged and broken toilets. City of Los Angeles leaders pushed the trust into receivership and, after 18 months, all the properties were transferred to new owners. The city allocated nearly $40 million to finance the receivership, though the new owners reimbursed some of the money upon taking control. The trust declared bankruptcy and dissolved in January. Researchers received access to the trust's internal financial data and interviewed more than 30 people, including former trust executives and those knowledgeable about its operations, to produce the report. The report, which was funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, is not meant to be a definitive understanding of the trust's failure, Knowlton said. Times reporting has shown questionable decision-making, financial mismanagement and unstable leadership marked the organization's final few years. The report did not examine specific actions made by trust executives. Joanne Cordero, the trust's final CEO who took over amid its spiral in late 2022, was a co-author. The root of the trust's problems, the report determined, was that tenants' public rental subsidies did not provide enough revenue to manage the buildings, including costs needed to assist those dealing with mental illness and drug addiction. All trust properties, including newer buildings with studio and one-bedroom apartments, were running annual deficits — nearly $1 million in one case — once factoring in long-term maintenance expenses, the report found. Not only were the rental subsidies insufficient to cover costs, but also the funding came through multiple programs that paid the trust wildly disparate rates for rooms without any clear way to increase them. Similar trust buildings received subsidies priced at a difference of up to $600 per unit per month. The report called the calculation of these rates 'cryptic' and their variability 'indefensible.' 'The subsidies are not covering the cost,' Knowlton said. 'The increases are inconsistent. The subsidy types are inconsistent, and there's no reason.' The report cites 2015 as a turning point for trust properties. That year, the region implemented a new coordinated entry system for placing homeless residents into trust buildings and other supportive housing through a process designed to prioritize rooms for the neediest. The system has been criticized broadly among homeless housing providers for taking too long to match potential residents with units and for concentrating too many people with mental illness, physical disabilities and addiction problems within buildings. After its implementation, vacancies in trust buildings skyrocketed, which further sapped the organization's revenues. Spending on security immediately jumped from $50,000 annually prior to 2016 to well over $500,000 after, and ultimately soaring above $1.4 million by 2022. Knowlton said she could not determine that the coordinated entry system was the source of these problems as other factors played a role. The portfolio's vacancies were stabilizing until staffing and maintenance woes amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 sent them spiraling. Deteriorating conditions in Skid Row broadly over the same period also could explain the greater security needs, she said. Still, Knowlton said that local leaders should reevaluate decisions to house those with the most severe health problems in single-room occupancy hotels, which have shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. 'I don't think single-room occupancy is the right type of housing for people with high levels of mental health needs or extreme substance use issues,' she said. Reaching similar conclusions during the receivership, city housing officials advocated for tearing down trust SROs and replacing them with new efficiency and one-bedroom apartment buildings, but they abandoned that plan as too risky, expensive and disruptive. Knowlton is pushing to overhaul the region's system for funding supportive housing, noting that the problems she identified were universal. Rent subsidies, Knowlton said, should be set to the cost of providing supportive housing, including social services. Doing so, however, would require significant and ongoing funding boosts at the federal level, which she deemed 'extremely ambitious.' In the short term, she argued government agencies should increase and standardize the subsidies to reduce their variability. 'That's going to give us the time and the cushion that we need to really set that longer term vision around how these buildings are stewarded as public assets, as community assets, because that's what they are,' she said. The alternative could be worse, she said. Other supportive housing providers have shown signs of stress. SRO Housing Corp., a similar nonprofit landlord operating 30 supportive housing buildings with a large presence in Skid Row, has documented its financial challenges for years. In December, tenants at one building alleged vermin infestations, broken elevators and sewage leaks in a lawsuit. When the trust failed, the city stepped in to save critical last-resort housing, but at great cost to taxpayers and without resolving underlying problems in the supportive housing system, Knowlton said. Federal, state and local leaders should do everything they can to avoid a similar situation from occurring again, she said. The trust's collapse, Knowlton said, was, 'a canary in the coal mine situation.' Times staff writer Douglas Smith contributed to this report.
