SEATTLE (October 23, 2026) — Today, Community Solutions, a nonprofit working with more than 170 communities to make homelessness rare and brief, wrapped up its annual Built for Zero Learning Session, bringing together over 600 sector professionals, staff, and national network partners in local government, housing, healthcare, business, philanthropy, and people with lived experience from communities across the country. The forum connected teams from 97 communities to share learnings on reducing homelessness and creating systems that achieve that outcome. Over the course of three days, attendees heard from peers and specialists on how to:
- Coordinate housing, health care, and public safety around a shared aim
- Work with public housing authorities, developers, and landlords to increase access to housing
- Turn real-time data and housing inventory into more rapid housing placements
- Apply field-tested storytelling to build public and policymaker support
- Make the case for sustained investment supported by visible outcomes
- Weigh AI’s promise and its risks before bringing it into homelessness work
The Learning Session kicked off on Tuesday morning with remarks from Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson. Mayor Wilson spoke to her administration’s commitment to reduce unsheltered homelessness, return public spaces to public use, and create more shelter and affordable housing. At a press conference the following day, Mayor Wilson announced a citywide expansion of Seattle’s successful Streets to Housing pilot based on Community Solutions’ framework alongside City Council, businesses, and not for profit leaders.
“We are scaling up our success from this summer in one downtown neighborhood, to other parts of Seattle. We are doing this by reallocating existing resources and using an efficient strategy, proven and tested around the country and informed by Community Solutions. This is a lean and focused effort that has a track record of moving people indoors and keeping them there,” said Mayor Wilson. “This might be new to Seattle, but it is not new to dozens of other cities around the country. Thanks to the Community Solutions framework underpinning this model, it has been shown to work in cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Anchorage, Kansas City, Houston, and Denver. That is the kind of striking progress, under my leadership, that we are going to make here in the Emerald City.”
In addition to Mayor Wilson’s announcement, Community Solutions unveiled a “Shared Agenda to Reduce Homelessness,” a three-pillar approach to reaching outcomes in reducing homelessness: (1) build enough housing people can afford, (2) run a response system that works, and (3) deliver targeted help to the people who need it most. So far, 116 people, organizations, and partners signed the agenda — momentum upon which Community Solutions will build in the coming months.
“Our annual Learning Sessions are an opportunity for all our partners within and alongside the homeless response system to identify solutions that will push their communities forward. The shared agenda extends this learning to advance the strategies that local organizations have proven — time and time again — to reduce unsheltered homelessness,” said Rosanne Haggerty, President and CEO of Community Solutions. “Reducing homelessness is a community-wide project that takes every partner acting as one team.”
This year’s session also featured panels including:
- “Completing the Mission: Celebrating Progress on Veteran Homelessness” with Keith Harris (Basecamp Counseling & Consulting Services), Gerald Curley (VA Detroit Healthcare System), Dawn Gilman (Changing Homelessness), Jaclynn Trakalo (New Jersey Department of Community Affairs), and Meghan Deal (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
- “Alternative response: Partnerships with law enforcement that work” with Anne Larsen (Policing Project at NYU School of Law), Anise Vance (Durham Community Safety Department) and Dr. Amy Barden (Chief of Seattle’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement)
- “Mind the Gaps: What’s Missing in Housing for People With Complex Health Needs” with Dan Malone (Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Service Center), Erin Atencio (City and County of Denver’s Roads to Recovery), Jim O’Connell (Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program), and Heather Muller (Clutch Consulting Group)
Finally, the MacArthur Foundation sponsored a special event, “Housing for All: The Missing Pieces and How We’ve Solved this Problem Before,” featuring MacArthur Fellows — Purpose Dignity Action Co-Executive Director, Lisa Daugaard (2019) and President and CEO of Community Solutions, Rosanne Haggerty (2001) and Dr. Regina Benjamin (2008) — alongside Seattle City Councilmember and chair of the City Council’s Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee, Dionne Foster, and Seattle Social Housing Developer Interim CEO Tiffani McCoy to discuss housing options communities are missing and the models from the past that point the way forward.
You can see the full agenda from the Learning Session here. To see the “Shared Agenda to Reduce Homelessness, click here.
###
About Community Solutions
Community Solutions is a nonprofit working to make homelessness rare and brief. It leads Built for Zero, a network of more than 170 US communities using a field-tested, outcomes-focused approach to reducing and preventing homelessness. Learn more at www.community.solutions or follow us at @CmtySolutions.
Media Contact:
Maddy Troha
mtroha@community.solutions
