Ending homelessness isn’t just possible — it’s already happening!
Cities and counties just like yours are changing how local housing systems work to ensure an end to homelessness that lasts and leaves no one behind.
Built for Zero is movement of more than 80 communities working to measurably end homelessness, starting with veteran and chronic homelessness.
What is Functional Zero?
A community has ended veteran homelessness when the number of veterans experiencing homelessness is
less than the number of veterans a community has proven it can house in a routine month. It has ended chronic homelessness when the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness is zero, or if not zero, then either 3 or .1% of the total number of individuals reported in the most recent point-in-time count, whichever is greater.
Stories of Success
New York Times best-selling author Dan Heath features Built for Zero in new book, Upstream
The book features problem solvers and innovators, including Rockford, Illinois, a community dedicated to ending all homelessness, through Built for Zero.
Race and homelessness are inextricably linked. Here’s what we’re doing about it.
Built for Zero is working to develop a roadmap for homeless response systems that addresses racial disparities. We believe that the same rigorous improvement techniques that have helped communities drive better outcomes across the general population can also help them surface and begin to dismantle the racism that pervades public systems.
Built for Zero one of Fast Company’s “10 world-changing solutions” of 2019
We’re proud to be recognized as one of Fast Company’s most inspiring stories of the year. The magazine featured Built for Zero’s data-driven efforts to end homelessness.
“People think ending homelessness is not achievable, because the system wasn’t designed to end it: it was designed to manage it. But if you redesign it with zero in mind, it can be ended.”
Brenda O’Connell and her community of Lake County, Illinois, ended veteran homelessness with the help of Built for Zero.
