A Growing Drive to Get Homelessness to Zero

A study on four homeless individuals showed that they cost thousands of dollars, plus hours of city officials' time. Outreach Fort Collins aims to decrease these numbers by recognizing the importance of relationships and checking in on homeless individuals as a neighborhood resource for people to turn to if there is a concern (rather than calling the police).

Homelessness has many challenges that require different services to aid those who have no place to live—including daycare and laundry. Seattle has established Mary’s Place Family Center, a public space that collaborates with non-profits to provide a multitude of social services to the homeless. Large corporations have donated buildings to serve as Seattle’s Mary’s Place shelters to diminish costs.

There are about 67,000 homeless veterans in the United States today, and at least a third are chronically homeless. The 100,000 Homes Campaign, which aims to get 100,000 chronically homeless or otherwise particularly vulnerable people into housing, supercharged the housing process this summer using Rapid Results — a strategy that helps communities jump-start projects by breaking off a 100-day chunk, setting wildly ambitious goals and using any (legal) means necessary to achieve them.

By partnering with cities across America, the 100,000 Homes campaign is going directly to the streets to end homelessness - and it’s working. With roughly 700,000 people in the United States experiencing homelessness, this organization seeks to address that using a tiered system that considers individual health needs as well.

Washington D.C. has decreased the number of people experiencing homelessness through the implementation of its permanent supportive housing programs. The 'housing first' initiatives prioritize providing permanent housing to those experiencing homelessness and then connecting those residents to all the services they need to maintain that housing. There are no requirements of sobriety, employment, or medication to receive the permanent housing. The local government adopted the housing first approach in 2008 and has seen a decline in homelessness.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association Canada and Humanity First Canada teamed up to transform a bus into a mobile shelter for the homeless, complete with 20 beds, a kitchenette, a bathroom, internet, and more. The program is called Shelter Bus and, since launching in December 2019, has served over 1,000 people and reaches up to 50 people a day. The bus has been described as "heaven" by some guests, and they are now planning to have 3 buses by the next year.

For LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness and/or with a foster placement history, barriers to education, work, health, and general safety are a common experience. The Quads on Lancaster supportive housing program in Philadelphia offers a small amount of transition housing for LGBTQ youth who have aged out of the system, establishing personal connections and providing services to help participants prepare for adulthood.

Houston is a leader in ending veteran homelessness, with "an engaged police unit, a seasoned group of social and policy workers, and a city looking to innovate and improve," but that success has not scaled successfully to dealing with all chronic homelessness in the city. To truly solve chronic homelessness, Houston has found that it needs to build relationships with those experiencing homelessness to understand what specific services they need to stay housed.

Several factors contribute to the successful strategy that keeps people off the streets in Philadelphia, where the poverty rate is the highest among the 10 biggest cities in the country. Having multiple services within comprehensive outreach teams is a critical component as is their caring approach to those who need help. Housing services, both temporary and permanent are also vital. Permanent housing is offered with "wrap-around services" which enable people to stay housed. These include physical and mental help in addition to assistance with obtaining a GED, a license and more.

Chris Finlay, who manages a real estate company in Washington, D.C., decided to try hiring homeless people to work in his buildings. His goal was to provide a job alongside significantly discounted housing as a benefit of the job. Seeing the concept’s success, he started a nonprofit called Shelters to Shutters to help spread the idea around the country. The organization has helped hire people in 15 cities, and 93% of those hired are still employed in these jobs.