The Watt Cos. has finished its first L.A. Homelessness Challenge, awarding two Southern California non-profit organizations $200,000 to implement their winning ideas. Venice Family Clinic and the Illumination Foundation won the award of 40 applicants. The Los Angeles-based owner partnered with United Way of Greater Los Angeles for the challenge, which is intended to generate housing solutions and services to aid the growing homeless population in Los Angeles.

“We were so pleased to receive an overwhelming response to our first L.A. Homelessness Challenge,” Nadine Watt, president of Watt Cos., tells GlobeSt.com. “We received more than 40 applications with innovative and well-thought-out proposals. We were grateful to have a team of 25 incredible judges, made up of a diverse group of professionals with business, nonprofit, and civic backgrounds, who helped us narrow the list down to five finalists.”

The two winners developed meaningful services that were scalable and had the potential to impact thousands of lives, according to Watt. “These two organizations submitted the most innovative and practical plans to help a wide range of people with critically important services and we are looking forward to seeing these programs implemented, and thousands of people helped as a result,” she says.