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 70 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
A community leader on what it takes to end chronic homelessness
“As I look to and learn from other communities working to end chronic homelessness, I am inspired by their willingness to look not only at these big system changes, but also small changes in their everyday work — something akin to the butterfly effect, where one small change can effect big ripples — either in a whole system or in the life of one person.”
Phoenix is out to end veteran homelessness — across 9,224 square miles
Veteran homelessness has been cut in half in Maricopa County, thanks to the team’s focus on data and collaboration.
Rosanne Haggerty interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell for “Solvable”
“There are communities solving the problem, have ended chronic or veteran homelessness, and are seeing steady month over month reductions. But we are still in a world that is convinced this is not a solvable problem, despite the evidence, but with no clear endgame.”
“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.
