Conquering Homelessness

Homelessness is a major problem in most cities and even small towns in the U.S..and around the world. What do you do with combat-damaged veterans  and the chronically homeless? Rockford, Ill., a town of 150,000 residents decided to tackle the issue  The town was hardhit by  the recession in the 1980s when many manufacturing jobs were lost. The town leaders found over 700 people homeless.

The mayor got together city agencies and private organizations to work together to find a solution. They made a coordinated entry system which identified the people who were homeless. They listened to people's stories one on one, which made the process very personal. They focused on veterans first, who numbered about 100. Then they addressed those who were chronically homeless. They worked with various agencies and made a plan for each person. It took a year to reach zero for veteran homelessness and two more years to reach zero for chronic homelessness.

The first need is providing affordable housing, but even more necessary are "collaborative functioning systems." The civic leaders must have the political will to develop a program to meet the particular needs and resources of the community. It's necessary to collect data and begin in one segment of the population, then move on to end homelessness in other segments.

 Today 85 cities have become part of the Built for Zero network; and 11 more cities have attained "functional zero" for segments of their homeless population. Rockford served as a model on the local level, but there is a real need for a national policy to fund such programs.

Sometimes we think homelessness is too big a problem to solve, but when networks get together and there is strong leadership, the impossible becomes possible.