Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is part of the Built for Zero movement to end chronic homelessness. This article originally appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal.
In 2005, Forsyth County made the commitment to end chronic homelessness.
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The team working to end veteran homelessness in Phoenix has a lot of ground to cover. Sprawling Maricopa County includes the city of Phoenix and spans 9,224 square miles, making it bigger than four states, by area. It’s comprised of 24 municipalities, several Native American nations, and is among the fastest growing counties in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
From June 25 to 30, thousands of golf fans in Detroit took their chance at a scoring a coveted hole-in-one at the interactive “Shot for Heroes” experience at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. For each attempted shot, Quicken Loans generously donated to Built for Zero - $25 for a fan taking a swing, $100 for landing a ball in the “O” within 13 feet of the pin, and $2,500 donated to Community Solutions and $2,500 to the fan who hits a hole-in-one. Even PGA Tour pro Rickie Fowler joined guests and fans and took on the challenge at the event.
On July 2, Lake County, Illinois announced that they have reached both Functional Zero and met federal benchmarks and criteria for ending veteran homelessness. They are the 11th community in the nation to reach Functional Zero on veteran or chronic homelessness.
"People think ending homelessness is not achievable, because the system wasn't designed to end it — it was designed to manage it,” said Brenda O’Connell, community lead for Built for Zero and the Continuum of Care Program Coordinator of Lake County. “But if you redesign it with zero in mind, it can be ended.”
Rosanne Haggerty, the president of Community Solutions, was interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell for his new podcast called Solvable, which explores solutions to some of the world’s more daunting problems. In the 30-minute conversation, they discussed how more than 70 communities across the country are proving that homelessness is not only solvable, but being solved.
What would it take to end homelessness — to make it an experience that rarely happens, and when it does, is quickly resolved with the right help so that it doesn’t happen again? Built for Zero communities like Abilene, Texas have made a commitment to ensuring that homelessness is a brief experience when it occurs for any veteran in their city — and never a sustained or defining part of someone’s life.
What if we tracked homelessness like we do the flu or unemployment? The latest episode of NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast explores how 69 Built for Zero communities across the country are pioneering the use of real-time, individual-level data to change how they tackle homelessness — and the breakthrough results they have been able to achieve.
Homelessness is a complex problem. We know that to solve it, communities need real-time, person-specific data and a flexible ways of problem solving designed to tackle evolving problems. But in our recent Built for Zero Learning Sessions communities told us that they need even more of something else to get across the finish line: each other.
We’re blown away by what this movement has become. Two years ago, 87 people showed up in Los Angeles, committed to learning with us and from one another in order to end homelessness. Last week, more than 400 people from 60+ communities and our partners gathered in Atlanta for two days of problem solving, planning, and celebrating each other's work.
11 MARCH 2019, AUSTIN TX - Tableau Foundation and Community Solutions, a national leader in the fight to end homelessness, announced today an investment of $1.3 million in software, services, and financial support to help eliminate veteran and chronic homelessness in 50 communities across the U.S. by 2025.