The Miley Cyrus Foundation pledged $1 million to the Downtown Women's Center for Rosa's Place, a 97-apartment development for women experiencing homelessness on Skid Row — a gift that has drawn scrutiny over the foundation's disclosed finances.
The Miley Cyrus Foundation has pledged $1 million to the Downtown Women's Center's HOME Campaign, funding a housing development that will add 97 apartments for women experiencing homelessness on Los Angeles' Skid Row.
The gift, announced at the nonprofit's Every Woman Housed Gala in Los Angeles on Oct. 10, goes toward Rosa's Place, a building now under construction. Cyrus and her mother, Tish Cyrus-Purcell, were the gala's honorees. Organizers said the event raised more than $2 million through donations, tickets and sponsorships. Maybelline New York and the Arrillaga Foundation joined Cyrus's foundation as presenting sponsors, and actor Natasha Rothwell hosted.
The family's involvement extends beyond the donation. According to the Downtown Women's Center, Cyrus and her mother have helped renovate living and community spaces on its downtown campus and consulted on the interior design of Rosa's Place.
"It's an honor to support DWC as it creates opportunities for women to heal, rebuild, and feel at home," Cyrus said.
Twelve years of a shifting focus
The pledge is the latest chapter in a philanthropic effort that began more than a decade ago. At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, Cyrus sent Jesse Helt, a young man who had experienced homelessness, onstage to accept her video of the year award in her place, directing viewers to donate to My Friend's Place, a Los Angeles community center. She launched the Happy Hippie Foundation shortly afterward; it is now part of the Miley Cyrus Foundation, which the singer established in late 2024.
The foundation's first major project was a renovation of the Downtown Women's Center's Skid Row Day Center, which serves more than 5,000 women a year with meals, hygiene supplies and support services.
A pledge that has drawn scrutiny
The scale of the commitment has not gone unchallenged. Showbiz411 reported that the foundation's most recent federal tax filing, covering 2024-25, lists net assets of $7,079, after it distributed $474,000 to five organizations. That filing precedes the $1 million pledge, so it does not reflect the foundation's current holdings. Cyrus's representatives did not appear in that coverage, and no spokesperson has publicly addressed the discrepancy.
The gap between a headline donation and a foundation's disclosed balance sheet is not unusual — pledges are often paid over multiple years and can be funded by separate donations — but it is the kind of detail that determines whether a celebrated gift translates into finished construction.
What to watch
Rosa's Place remains under construction. The question that will define the effort is straightforward: whether the 97 apartments open and house the women they were promised to. The Downtown Women's Center says the HOME Campaign is intended to expand permanent supportive housing in a neighborhood where demand has long outpaced supply. For now, the pledge is a commitment, not a result.