Proven Strategies to Address Homelessness: Stories from Four Cities
- Issue Areas
- Housing and community development
Homelessness is rising, and in communities across the country, local leaders are facing immense pressure to address the issue. Nearly three quarters of mayors report that their constituents hold them accountable for issues related to homelessness, despite having limited control over its root causes. With so many people struggling with homelessness–and with so much public attention on the issue–local leaders are increasingly asking: what would an evidence-based approach to reducing and preventing homelessness look like?
Fortunately, a significant amount of research and evaluation has taken place in recent years, highlighting promising strategies to prevent individuals from entering into homelessness and to help individuals experiencing chronic homelessness secure and retain stable housing. To prevent individuals from entering into homelessness, these strategies include guaranteeing the right to legal representation and providing emergency financial assistance to households at high risk of eviction. To address chronic homelessness, these strategies include the Built for Zero program model and permanent supportive housing.
Stopped Before it Starts: Right to Counsel and Financial Assistance Programs
An evidence-based agenda to address homelessness begins with preventing households from entering homelessness in the first place. For those at risk of homelessness, the benefit of prevention is clear – namely, avoiding the negative social, economic, and health impacts that experiencing homelessness causes. But preventing homelessness also benefits communities as a whole, in no small part by saving local jurisdictions money. Addressing homelessness after it starts is expensive, with communities picking up the cost of shelters and housing programs, healthcare, increased rates of incarceration, and more.
Recognizing these benefits, local governments around the country have increasingly invested in homelessness prevention. Right to counsel and emergency financial assistance programs are two approaches that have shown promising results.
In 2018, nearly a quarter of households renting in Newark (NJ) received an eviction notice. Recognizing the link between eviction and homelessness, the city government launched the Office of Tenant Legal Services (OTLS) in 2019. OTLS contracts with legal services providers to offer residents facing eviction free legal representation during eviction proceedings.
Prior to OTLS, most renters in Newark who appeared in housing court did so without a lawyer. As landlords nearly always had legal representation, most tenants were evicted. Since its launch, OTLS has reversed this trend, with over 3,000 residents having accessed legal services through the program.
To tackle their own homelessness crisis, local leaders in Santa Clara County (CA) launched the Homelessness Prevention System (HPS) in 2017. HPS is a county-wide network of local government agencies, nonprofit service providers, and private funders that assists households at imminent risk of becoming homeless. Participating households receive emergency financial assistance, averaging $6,119 per household, along with a case manager, who can connect them to additional resources.
Since 2017, HPS has served over 7,000 households at imminent risk of homelessness. Nearly all of those households – 94 percent – remained stably housed while receiving services. Looking at HPS’ emergency financial assistance element specifically, researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities also found that the county received $2.47 in benefits for every dollar spent on the program.
"Since 2017, HPS has served over 7,000 households at imminent risk of homelessness. Nearly all of those households – 94 percent – remained stably housed while receiving services."
Taking a Systems-Level Approach: Built for Zero
While protecting households from eviction and displacement should feature prominently in any agenda focused on homelessness, communities also need evidence-based strategies for moving currently homeless individuals into stable housing. Built for Zero is a methodology developed by Community Solutions that supports communities in reducing homelessness to “functional zero,” a state in which homelessness is rare and brief.
As part of the model, communities develop a shared, jurisdiction-level measurement for homelessness. This measure is updated at least monthly and includes “by-name” data, so those experiencing homelessness can receive individualized services. These data inform regular case conferencing sessions, in which a cross-agency group of service providers work collaboratively to help clients confront their individual challenges and secure stable housing. In between these sessions, case workers provide direct support to clients, such as assistance filling out applications for housing, and reach out to property owners to address concerns and explain that their client has the financial support needed to afford the unit.
By setting a community-wide goal, Built for Zero creates a shared sense of accountability across each community’s homelessness services sector. With key agencies working together, communities are able to use real-time data to make informed decisions about where to invest local resources, how to promote equity, and more. To date, 105 communities across the country have adopted the Built for Zero model, from Bergen County (NJ) to Bakersfield (CA).
In 2018, the West Texas Homeless Network (WTHN), based Abilene (TX), joined Built for Zero. Local leaders first focused on ending veteran homelessness, then broadened their focus to address all chronic homelessness. In both cases, local partners adopted the Built for Zero model, with service providers meeting bi-weekly to collaborate on solutions for individual clients and to review data on the effectiveness of their past efforts. In between these meetings, service providers work with clients to identify and remove barriers to accessing housing.
The approach showed impact quickly. In less than a year, Abilene had reached functional zero for veteran homelessness. By 2020, the community had achieved functional zero for adult chronic homelessness as well.
Addressing Chronic Cases: Permanent Supportive Housing
About one-in-five homeless individuals are considered chronically homeless, meaning they have experienced homelessness for at least a year or four times during a three year period. Typically, chronic homelessness results from complex, long-term health conditions. A leading approach to ending chronic homelessness is permanent supportive housing (PSH). PSH programs provide chronically homeless individuals with both affordable housing and optional physical and mental health services, including treatment for substance use.
There is fairly strong evidence that PSH programs not only reduce homelessness and increase housing stability, but reduce hospitalization and recidivism rates as well. Providing PSH can also save communities money. On average, a chronically homeless individual costs taxpayers $35,578 per year, largely due to interactions with the healthcare and criminal-legal systems. However, when chronically homeless individuals access PSH, these costs are reduced, and jurisdictions can save an average of $4,800 per person, after accounting for the typical cost of providing PSH services.
Recognizing these costs, local leaders in Denver (CO) issued a social impact bond to fund an expansion of services to chronically homeless residents in 2014. As part of this effort, two local homeless services providers constructed 160 new housing units for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. This allowed these agencies to expand their intensive PSH programs, which provided rapid access to condition-free housing and specialized treatment for mental health and substance use conditions.
Three years after entering the PSR program, 77 percent of participants remained stably housed. Over that three year period, participants also stayed in shelters less often, had fewer interactions with police, and spent fewer days in jail, when compared to a control group of similar individuals.
Taking Action
For local leaders interested in addressing homelessness, strategies like right to counsel, emergency financial assistance, Built for Zero, and permanent supportive housing represent compelling, evidence-based solutions.
Looking to dive deeper into these solutions? Check out the links below: