The money
The three year budget, what a gift buys at the real year one cost, the first twelve months in order, and where it goes from there.
The money
Year one costs $474,140, of which $47,100 is expected in kind, so the cash to be raised is $427,040. Roughly $136,900 of the year is one time startup: deposits, furnishing two houses and the office from empty, equipment, incorporation and initial insurance.
| Category | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | $231,950 | $564,100 | $799,600 |
| Occupancy | $110,640 | $209,200 | $275,400 |
| Direct participant services | $29,850 | $97,900 | $168,600 |
| Administration | $86,900 | $92,000 | $131,000 |
| Development & marketing | $14,800 | $34,000 | $50,000 |
| Total | $474,140 | $997,200 | $1,424,600 |
$503
cost per bed night in year one, while the houses are still opening
$166
cost per bed night once five houses run a full year
11
veteran beds in year one, 26 by year three
0%
government revenue in year one, federal, state or city
Year one assumes no government money. VA Grant and Per Diem, the federal program that pays a daily rate for each veteran housed in a transitional bed, is the anchor of the long term budget. It requires an IRS determination letter we do not yet hold, and the year one budget counts no state or city money either. Private funding is the only thing that opens the first beds, and opening them is what makes us competitive for the federal funding that sustains them.
Year one cost per bed night is the least attractive number in the package, and it is real. Ninety four percent of the first year is fixed cost carried by a partial year of occupancy. It falls to roughly $166 once five houses run a full year. We publish the first year figure rather than the flattering one.
What a gift buys
Second Watch Veteran Housing (SWVH™) is a Colorado nonprofit corporation, EIN 42-4806033. Our application for federal tax exemption will be filed with the IRS. Gifts are not yet tax deductible. If exemption is granted, deductibility is expected to apply retroactively to the date of incorporation, August 31, 2026. We say so in every request we make, and we will tell every donor the day that changes.
The nights tier below is priced at the Year 1 cost of $503 a bed night, the first year figure and the higher of the two. The other tiers come from the plan's own budget lines.
Gifts are processed by Zeffy at no cost to Second Watch Veteran Housing, 100 percent of your gift reaches the mission.
The first twelve months
Month 1 is October 2026, and year one runs through September 2027. Every date below is a target. Each house opens behind a gate, which means no lease is signed until cash in hand plus written commitments cover that house's opening costs and its first six months. If a gate is not met, the date moves and we say so.
October through December 2026. The Articles were filed August 31, 2026, before the clock started. Three directors by month two, when the bylaws are adopted. Form 1023 filed the week the second director is seated.
January through March 2027. Written agreements with at least three partners and a screened waiting list. The occupancy plan depends on this. If they are not signed by month six, the budget drops to the lower occupancy assumption and the board is told.
February and March 2027. Program manager, case manager, women's program advocate and executive assistant hired in month five and trained before a resident arrives. The lease follows in month six.
April 2027. Address unpublished from day one. Awake overnight staffing from the first night.
August 2027. Program reaches eleven veteran beds. Conditional on its own funding gate. If the money is not committed, this moves into year two and we say so.
August and September 2027. Determination opens VA Grant and Per Diem eligibility for the next cycle. First outcome report published to funders and board.
Where it goes
The launch years set ratios that expansion never dilutes: case managers at one to twelve, residential aides at one and a half full time equivalents per house staffed awake overnight, women's program staff at roughly one per two and a half women's houses.
| Year | Houses | Veteran beds | Women's share | Veterans served |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 2 | 11 | 36% | 11 |
| Year 3 | 5 | 26 | 46% | 61 |
| Year 5 | 9 | 48 | 42% | about 103 |
| Year 10 | 19 | 103 | 39% | about 240 |
All rows are built on the staffing ratios above. Every figure is a planning projection in 2026 dollars, reforecast annually and never presented as a commitment.
At year ten the organization supplies roughly a fifth of the county's shelter gap as the Continuum of Care measured it in 2025 (518 beds), and has housed approximately 1,200 veterans over the decade. That denominator moves every year with the count, so any share we quote carries the year it is drawn from. Each new pair of houses leases only when its written gates are met, and a failed gate pauses growth a quarter at a time.
