Chris Contreras

Chief Program Officer, FHSP | Brilliant Corners

“If there is to be a paradigm shift, it will require that we bring BIPOC leaders to the forefront of positions of power and decision making. This necessitates truthful and vulnerable conversations in our organizations and sector centered around white dominant culture, authenticity versus professionalism in the workplace, intent versus impact, and healing from racism.”

Chris Contreras is the proud product of Guatemalan migrants and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2014, Chris joined Brilliant Corners to help launch the Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool (FHSP) in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS). The FHSP is a nationally recognized supportive housing model that helps thousands of people exit homelessness and institutionalization each year. Since its inception, the FHSP has housed over 9,000 formerly homeless Angelenos and is presently supported by a team of over 120 homeless service professionals.

As the current Director of the FHSP, Chris works on breaking down silos across government and private funders to pool and administer funds more effectively across an array of permanent supportive housing and interim housing initiatives. Most recently, Chris helped oversee Brilliant Corners Covid-19 response activities, which included managing the deployment of federal, local, and philanthropic resources to support L.A. County’s Covid-19 disaster response for people experiencing homelessness. Chris is passionate about ending homelessness and is committed to making an impact in designing inclusive initiatives and budgeting mechanisms that intentionally remove structural barriers for Black, Indigenous and People of Color experiencing homelessness.