The Tiny-House Village That Started a Movement

Mitigating homelessness on Los Angeles' infamous "Skid Row" comprises myriad obstacles. But a collaboration between city officials, a USC architecture class project, and the Skid Row Housing Trust has responded with a multi-pronged solution in "pod-style" housing units. They have composed a cost-effective pre-fab design technology that eases their transportation, on-site construction and visual imposition on a neighborhood, while the pods' zoning classification as "congregant housing" minimizes the risk for local opposition to homeless support services on claims of structural or aesthetic noncompliance.

Between 2004 and 2014, San Francisco’s mayor attempted to rid the city of chronic homelessness with a ten-year plan. Despite dramatic successes in moving thousands of homeless from the streets, the homeless population numbers remain the same and chronic homelessness may never be eradicated. In reexamining the problems from the ten-year plan, the current administration has new ideas to decrease their number of homeless.

The City of Seattle partnered with Zillow to create a searchable database of affordable vacant rental units. Case managers are using the tool to get homeless residents into housing.

A project launched in the United Kingdom uses social-impact bonds to reduce recidivism among prisoners, bringing together public and private resources to implement more effective and cost efficient social programs. Their success is inspiring other countries to follow suit.

Homes for All Veterans, a program within the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Human Services, recently began training volunteers to walk the city's streets in search of homeless veterans, with the goal of effectively eliminate veteran homelessness by the end of the year. If successful, advocates say the push to end veteran homelessness could be the first step in addressing the city's larger, chronically homeless population.

In Australia, a universal survey in several secondary schools helps to identify students who are at risk of becoming homeless and connects them with wraparound services. The prevention-based model may soon be piloted in King County, Washington.

Atlanta has seen a decline in rates of people experiencing homelessness from 2008-2018, a trend that is particularly meaningful as other cities contend with stubbornly high numbers. Part of the solution? A new source of more flexible and consistent funding allowing non-profits to provide the assistance needed and help get people into permanent supportive housing.

The hub-and-spoke model allows local partners to provide individuals with access to resources earmarked specifically for opioid addiction treatment. The system of care, which uses regional clinics and non-profits as access points to treatment, has already proven effective in Vermont. Currently, a similar program is assisting individuals suffering from opioid addiction receive the help they need through entry points at nonprofits like The Doorway office at Harbor Homes.

A new coalition of nonprofits is working to change the way corporations and philanthropists think about disaster assistance. Most efforts and money funnel to communities in the early days and weeks after a disaster, while very little goes toward long term recovery efforts. The coalition has created a framework to guide more effective assistance to minimize waste and get appropriate resources to communities when they need them.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has worked with countless non-profits to try to decrease homelessness in the city. Finally, one solution is showing positive effects. Supportive housing is a type of affordable housing that includes job training programs, access to healthcare, and financial literacy education, all with the aim of keeping residents housed. Within New York, 1,400 units of supportive housing are currently funded, and 2,803 units are in the development process.