Three-year-old Nina is doing her happy dance because this is the first time that she's ever had a Christmas tree.  

“Two years ago on Christmas we were living in our car," says Nina’s mom LaSandra, as she hangs lights on the tree.

Nina was a newborn when her father Eduardo was in a serious car accident.

“I had a broken back with a broken leg, a concussion, the trauma unit, and I wasn't able to work for an entire year,” Eduardo says.

Nina carefully places plastic snowflakes on the living room window. Something she couldn’t do when they lived in their car for seven months.

“It was hard because sometimes we didn’t have money for food and not a lot of people wanted to help us,” Lasandra says.

But their situation changed when Eduardo's sister suggested they go to LA Family Housing in North Hollywood for help.

“When you hear that an organization would be willing to help you, to be there for you when you're homeless, it's almost hard to believe because you've been let down. Things have been so bad, and your circumstances are so horrible. You question if they will really help us,” Eduardo says.

LA Family Housing did help them not only to get into an apartment within days, but also gave them continual support and services once they had a home. Now, thanks to a $5 million grant from The Day One Fund, run by Amazon's Chief Executive Jeff Bazos, LA Family Housing will be able to help more families like Eduardo's.

LA Family Housing CEO and President, Stephanie Klasy-Gamer says they're looking to buy houses in the Valley to get as many as 150 families off the street.

“We can help families move into safe secure supported bridge housing, and then from there we will help them find an apartment that they can afford and move into," said Klasy-Gamer. “This grant is going to allow us to purchase homes to use as crisis or bridge housing for these families."