California · Nonprofit
ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS
ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS (California) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,047,831 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($670,804). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $42M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $31M
What Alpha Project for the Homeless does
Mission
Alpha Project for the Homeless (Alpha Project) was organized in February 1987 under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public and charitable purposes. The mission of Alpha Project is to empower individuals, families, and communities by providing work, recovery and support services to people who are motivated to change their lives and achieve self-sufficiency. Alpha Projects many programs are available to all persons in need regardless of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.Alpha Project strives not to manage homelessness, but rather to end it for its clients. The agencys programs do not aim at making homelessness easier, or less costly, or more tolerable. Alpha Project breaks the cycle of homelessness and provides an alternate direction for its clients out of hopelessness and despair, and into a life of responsibility and dignity.Each program offered by the Alpha Project focuses on assisting participants to attain their
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Shelter Programs and ServicesTemporary Bridge Shelters:Alpha Project operates two Temporary Bridge Shelters for single adults in downtown San Diego on behalf of the City of San Diego. Bridge Shelter #1 is located at the corner of 16th Street and Newton Avenue. Bridge Shelter #2 is located at 1710 Imperial Avenue. The programs utilize tools designed to effectively serve the target population in a welcoming and solutions-focused environment. Clients at the sprung structures receive emergency housing including restrooms, showers, laundry, meals, and supplies. An array of services are offered through Alpha Project and partners including medical and behavioral health services. Cortez Hill Family Center - Interim Housing Program:Operated on behalf of the City of San Diego, Cortez Hill Family Center Interim Housing Program offers emergency housing for homeless families with children. The program provides safe housing, meals, access to education, medical, and other wrap-around services for families with children to thrive and prepare for longer-term or permanent housing, as well as successfully promote self-sufficiency, wellness, and recovery.
$19,202,110 spent50% of program spendingPermanent Housing Programs & ServicesRapid Re-Housing:The Rapid Re-Housing Program provides housing navigation and location, case management, and financial assistance to permanently house individuals and families. The program provides application, security deposit, and short-term or medium-term rental assistance, as well as assists in securing needed furniture and supplies. The program also assists clients to access support services and resources including medical, behavioral health, legal, work training, and employment.Home Finder & Tenant Peer Support Services (TPSS):Home Finder and Tenant Peer Support Services (TPSS) programs serve clients who are 1) ages 18 years or older, 2) homeless, 3) experience serious mental illness, and 4) connected to designated County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services (BHS) outpatient clinics. Staff meets with clients at designated clinics where they start the housing process to include needs assessment, housing location, housing navigation, and supportive services. Staff also coordinates, brokers, and schedules appropriate client services with external medical, dental, and housing opportunities to meet client needs. Homeless Prevention and Case…
$7,374,016 spent19% of program spendingRehabilitation Program ServicesCasa Raphael Residential Substance Use Disorder Program:Casa Raphael, located at 993 and 975 Postal Way in Vista, CA is a state-licensed and certified residential treatment program for men in recovery from substance abuse. The program provides housing, food, recovery workshops, case management, mental health counseling, access to healthcare, work, financial assistance, and other support services. The program offers an intensive 12-week environment in which residents participate in an evidence-based practice curriculum.
$6,705,937 spent17% of program spendingPermanent Supportive Housing AssistanceAlpha Square:Alpha Square, welcoming residents since 2015, is located at 550 14th Street in Downtown San Diego and incorporates 203 units, including two management units, along with onsite laundry, computer lab, food pantry, commercial kitchen, community rooms, and rooftop terrace. Alpha Square provides supportive, affordable, and sustainable housing with access to on-site support services to address needs such as mental health counseling, addiction counseling, enrolling in benefits, financial support, and access to long-term treatment and other services. Alpha Lofts:Launched in 2019, Alpha Lofts located at 3808 El Cajon Blvd. in Normal Heights is a supportive affordable housing complex for homeless veterans in San Diego. Alpha Project staff provides essential support services for the residents of Alpha Lofts, which offers 53 units including one managers unit, as well as an onsite food pantry, computer lab, laundry room, and terrace. The program also connects residents to medical, behavioral health, and other necessary services.
$3,087,742 spent8% of program spendingWork ProgramsSpecial Projects:Special Projects provides meaningful work and training opportunities to eligible clients able to work. Throughout the year, Alpha Project contracts directly with various public departments and private entities to provide weed and brush abatement services, and other community benefit projects, to neighborhoods and rural areas throughout San Diego County.Wheels of Change:Wheels of Change offers work opportunities, paying minimum wage, to individuals residing at Alpha Projects Temporary Bridge Shelter programs. Wheels of Change empowers shelter residents, builds self-esteem, and provides meaningful work experience while giving back to the community
$2,210,422 spent$5,549,328 earned by the program6% of program spendingOther ProgramsFood Services Program:Alpha Projects commercial kitchen at Alpha Square is instrumental in the delivery of food services to the agencys many programs including the preparation of over 200,000 hot meals annually to shelter residents. The program also helps stock the agencys three food pantries at Alpha Square, Alpha Lofts, and Luther Tower, as well as prepares food kits for clients moving into housing of their own and emergency food kits as needed for seniors, disabled, and chronically ill clients.Homeless Outreach:At the core of all of Alpha Projects facilities and services is a program of Homeless Outreach, designed not only to assist those in need in accessing needed services but also to assist the surrounding neighborhood in addressing homeless-related issues. Operating in the City of San Diego, City of Vista, Chula Vista City, National City, and the Port of San Diego, outreach workers are trained in crisis response and de-escalation, with access to food, transportation and a wealth of referral sources to help individuals and families still homeless connect with housing and other sources of support.Case Management at Luther Tower:Luther Tower offers 200 units of…
$137,971 spent0% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $38,718,198.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $25M to $34M (+34%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 13% · 2018 13% · 2019 13% · 2020 54% · 2021 72% · 2022 73% · 2023 72% · 2024 78% · 2025 78%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Robert Mcelroy
CEO & president
Board chair
Susan Raffee
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $257k → $548k.
17 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
60% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 17% · 2019 23% · 2020 19% · 2021 15% · 2022 22% · 2023 20% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
43% of ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
55% of ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.3M that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Government funding ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20.5M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$20.5M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 9 related entities
- Alpha the Lofts LLC · disregarded
- Alpha Square 4 LLC · disregarded
- Alpha Square 9 LLC · disregarded
- Metro Hotel Community Association · exempt
- West Coast Affordable Housing · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS?
- ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS (California) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,047,831 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($670,804). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $5,047,831 in grants to ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $670,804 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ALPHA PROJECT FOR THE HOMELESS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Alpha Project for the Homeless →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 83 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing