Cities that are making visible progress share something in common. They stopped managing homelessness and started building systems designed to reduce it. Built for Zero is the framework that helps communities make that shift.
A way of operating, not a single program
Built for Zero is a framework that changes how an entire community responds to homelessness: how it measures progress, how its organizations work together, and how it directs resources toward results people can see.
Since 2015, Community Solutions has worked alongside communities to understand what it actually takes to drive homelessness down for entire populations. Built for Zero emerged from that work. More than 170 communities across the country are now implementing this approach, proving that when the right systems are in place, homelessness can be visibly and meaningfully reduced.
The premise is straightforward: homelessness persists because most communities have never built a system designed to reduce it. Built for Zero helps communities build that system.
What Built for Zero communities do differently
Communities that reduce homelessness consistently make four interconnected changes. Together, these shifts move a community from managing homelessness to measurably reducing it.
They define what success looks like
The first step is agreeing on the goal. Built for Zero communities define success as something residents can see: fewer people living on the streets, more people moving into stable housing, and homelessness that is rare, brief, and nonrecurring across the whole community.
That shared definition changes everything. Rather than measuring whether individual programs are performing, communities measure whether homelessness is actually going down and hold themselves accountable for continuous improvement over time.
Communities typically start by focusing on specific populations, such as veterans or people experiencing chronic homelessness, as steps toward reducing homelessness for everyone.
THE PROBLEM
Funders evaluate success on the performance of individual housing programs, not on whether a community collectively reduces homelessness. But single programs don’t work together — whole communities do.
OUR SOLUTION
Community-level measurement.
Success is measured by the total number of people experiencing homelessness, not by program outcomes. Data enables communities to rapidly test new ideas and understand if those efforts are working.
They build one accountable team
In most cities, dozens of organizations serve people experiencing homelessness, each with its own programs, its own data, and its own definition of success. No single actor has a view of the whole system. No one is accountable for whether homelessness actually goes down.
Built for Zero communities break down those silos. Key partners, including Continuums of Care, the housing authority, local government, Veterans Affairs, and health care providers, come together as one team with shared goals and shared accountability. These teams typically meet weekly to review data, remove barriers, and make decisions that move people into housing faster.
The shift is from “my client” to “our community.”
THE PROBLEM
No single actor is fully accountable for ending homelessness in a community.
Each local agency or program holds its own small piece of the solution, but no one has their eye on how the pieces fit together.
OUR SOLUTION
An integrated, command center team.
Key agencies, like the Continuum of Care, the housing authority, local government, and the VA, work together consistently toward comprehensive goals.
They know every person by name
Annual street counts give communities a snapshot of homelessness: a single number once a year. Built for Zero communities maintain something far more useful: a real-time, by-name database of every person experiencing homelessness in their community.
Each person on the list has a record that includes their name, their history, their health needs, and their housing needs, updated regularly, often monthly or more frequently. This information is collected and shared with individual consent.
With this data, outreach workers can connect people to the right housing and services faster. At the population level, communities can track whether their efforts are actually reducing homelessness over time and adjust when they are not.
By-name data turns a snapshot into a living picture. It gives communities the line of sight they need to reduce homelessness.
THE PROBLEM
A once-a-year count of a problem that changes nightly.
Annual street counts are a snapshot; your community needs a video. Getting to zero takes line of sight into how people move through your system over time.
OUR SOLUTION
Comprehensive, real-time, by-name data.
Built for Zero communities know everyone experiencing homelessness by name, in real time. The result is more tailored solutions for individuals and a clearer picture of the system as a whole.
They direct housing resources strategically
Many cities have expanded housing supply without making a dent in homelessness. The reason is often the same: new housing was not connected to the systems responsible for reaching people experiencing homelessness.
Built for Zero communities use real-time data to identify what housing and flexible resources are needed, secure those resources, and target them for the greatest possible reductions. Rather than maintaining legacy programs that may not be producing results, partners direct investments toward what the data shows will move the most people off the streets and into stable housing.
This includes making sure communities have the flexible resources to act quickly when opportunities arise: rapid rehousing funds, short-term rental assistance, move-in costs, and other tools that prevent delays from turning into prolonged homelessness.
THE PROBLEM
Housing supply paralysis. Expanded housing resources are crucial, but many cities have dramatically expanded housing supply without making a dent in homelessness. The reason? They never fixed the housing system.
OUR SOLUTION
Strategic, data-driven housing investments. Built for Zero communities use real-time data to secure the housing resources they need and target them for the greatest possible reductions in homelessness.
Homelessness Policy Recommendations
Four recommendations that would scale the impact of the progress we are seeing in communities
TESTIMONIALS
“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.
“The challenge, for each of us, is to ask ourselves, ‘What one thing can I try today that might help someone who is homeless get housed faster? And what do I need to track to know it worked?’ Once you answer these questions, just do it.”
Andrea Kurtz and her community of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is close to ending chronic homelessness as part of Built for Zero.
“It’s different now: the relationships between our providers, our local homeless coalition, our 211 director. We really have ownership over our problem, our community. It wasn’t like that before.”
Michelle Parrish and her community of Abilene, Texas, ended veteran homelessness as part of Built for Zero.
“Before working with Built for Zero, I wouldn’t have been able to measure whether a change was working or not. Now I constantly find myself asking, “How will we know if this worked?” Before we just weren’t framing system change this way, and weren’t asking this question.”
Erin Mangano, VA Coordinated Entry Specialist within the Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) Program at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. She is the Veteran Team Lead for Cook County, Illinois.
