As an alternative to traditional courts, community courts provide resources to those experiencing homelessness. Fines and jail time are often the punishment in traditional courts for those charged with trespassing or loitering, but community courts provide services that help people find housing, jobs, health care, and even offer mobile showers, food stamp assistance, and mental health care. While the long-term data are lacking and don't offer a clear picture of recidivism rates, community courts do provide a better quality of life for those living on the streets.

The city of Syracuse uses two outreach programs to encourage homeless individuals to seek shelter during the winter months and, eventually, permanent housing. Rather than detain folks who refuse to seek shelter throughout the winter, outreach workers build trust with each unsheltered homeless person, fostering a relationship in order to encourage folks to seek safety and warmth.

A growing number of cities are creating formal camps to mitigate housing problems for those experiencing homelessness. The camps feature basic accommodations such as a three-walled structure under which a tent can be pitched - partly protected from cold, rain, and wind. The major draw is the around-the-clock security patrols in addition to portable bathrooms, trash collection, and on-site kitchen. The camps can also provide a place where people can leave their things while working temp jobs.

Sacramento city officials have long resisted a "safe ground" model to homelessness; now, local government officials have changed course, allowing homeless individuals to camp on a pre-determined area with essential utilities provided. This "safe ground" model brings houseless people in the area into one restricted area that contains bathrooms and security guards, giving the city more time to create permanent solutions to homelessness.

After a highly successful pilot run, Denver formally instituted Denver Day Works, an initiative that pays homeless residents to clean up and landscape the city during the day. So far, the program has helped over 150 people find permanent employment.

As Seattle deals with rapidly rising housing prices and an increase in the homeless population, the city is looking to Vienna, a city that has achieved success in the realm of affordable housing. “The Vienna Model” describes the mixture of ways Vienna has eradicated its homeless problem. By addressing factors underlying homelessness such as transit, aging, and ethnic tensions, the city has implemented government-sponsored social housing that is inclusive and sustainable.

In Berkeley, where shelter for those experiencing homelessness is extremely difficult to come by, the nonprofit and advocacy group Lava Mae is partnering with the city to provide a dedicated space for personal hygiene and showers across the city. While the service has been slow to catch on, efforts to share information about the service through word of mouth are catching on and the service has expanded throughout the state. While it's not a solution for the growing homelessness crisis, it's just one step being taken to treat those experiencing homelessness with dignity and respect.

America Works is a program that has been working to help vulnerable populations gain employment since 1984. They've helped more than 70,000 people find and keep jobs, largely in part due to their personalized approach and persistence -- even as they acknowledge the lack of a one-size-fixes-all approach.

While billions of taxpayer dollars are allocated each year to support shelters and social service initiatives, homelessness remains a persistent problem in the U.S. - in 2013, an estimated 610,000 people slept without shelter every night. All over the country, people are building "tiny homes" to give to the homeless, providing them with shelter, a bathroom, and a kitchen for less then the cost of a shelter.

Finland, the only EU country with declining homelessness, uses a “Housing First” program to provide homes for people living on the streets with no preconditions. Nonprofits manage long-term housing and, once in homes, individuals receive a rental agreement and pay rent and expenses. Social workers provide services from offices in residential buildings and the state helps financially. The program provided 4,600 homes in the past decade and costs less than accepting the status quo of homelessness. About 20% drop out and around 1,900 people still live on the streets, but emergency shelters can accommodate them.

A successful tiny home community in Missouri is inspiring a doctor-nurse duo to establish one in Wilmington, North Carolina. The idea took hold after they realized that chronic homelessness had a huge impact on health which led to frequent, preventable ER visits. Eden Village is supportive, permanent housing that residents can stay in forever as long as they abide by some rules.

Cities across the West Coast are facing increased rates of homelessness in their regions, including people who sleep in their cars; those experiencing vehicular homelessness have previously struggled to find a parking spot where they could sleep in peace, but new Safe Parking programs are providing that sanctuary. The Safe Parking programs across the region provide different amenities and security measures, but all the programs are currently strategizing how to scale programs and pay for them.

In Eugene, Oregon, the city – much like the rest of the United States – has often practiced ticketing, citing, and/or arresting individuals as a response to homelessness. The practice, often referred to as the criminalization of homelessness, is now being called into question by groups across the city. Since the police are often the initial responders to people experiencing housing insecurity, the city is trying responses like community outreach to better address the needs of these individuals instead of writing them a ticket or sending them to jail.

LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) proved itself in Seattle as effective at addressing the underlying problems of people experiencing homelessness, by waiving their criminal charges if they accepted needed services. But the program's two-year test in Honolulu failed to gain traction because only some police bought into it, and the prosecutor's office never did. Instead of using criminal citations as leverage, the program was stripped down to an ordinary outreach effort, and managed to enroll only 50 people, not all of whom were helped. A new prosecutor and the police will make another go of it.