Community Solutions works to create a lasting end to homelessness that leaves no one behind.
We envision a more equitable society where homelessness is never inevitable, inescapable, or a way of life.
WHAT WE DO
We don’t simply believe that all communities have the power to end homelessness — we work with the cities and counties making it a reality every day.
Community Solutions is a nonprofit that leads Built for Zero, a movement of more than 100 cities and counties using data to radically change how they work and the impact they can achieve — and proving that it is possible to make homelessness rare and brief. A growing number of communities across the country are proving this is an achievable reality by reaching a milestone known as functional zero.
In order to propel this movement to end homelessness up and over a tipping point, we are working with communities to solve the most persistent challenges that stand in the way. With rigor and data-driven solutions, we are working with communities to:
- prevent inflow into homelessness from happening in the first place;
- build and sustain homeless response systems that can continuously end, rather than manage, homelessness for populations across a geography;
- and quickly deliver affordable housing that can close the housing gap.
Together, we are proving that homelessness is solvable.
OUR VALUES
We tackle urgent, complex social problems at the systems level because our hope for a just society is at stake. We work in the service of real, lasting solutions.
We discover solutions through iterative experimentation and rigorous, data-driven reflection. We choose curiosity and action.
We start with the question of what matters to the person suffering the problem and work from there.
Our most important lessons and creative opportunities come from facing into what is not working. We don’t let fear of failure keep us from moving forward.
We believe in generosity and in working to make others successful, both within Community Solutions and among the partners and communities with which we work. We support each other in taking risks and learning. We replace the question, “Who is to blame for failure?” with a more powerful question, “What can I do to increase our collective chance of success?”
We each take full responsibility for workplace dynamics and hold ourselves accountable for the success of our projects and the organization as a whole. We hold ourselves and each other accountable to our values; we don’t wait for anyone to do it for us.
We take the fear out of change by making the process encouraging, inspiring, and fun.
We recognize racism as a leading cause of homelessness and many of the conditions that create it. We commit ourselves to building and being a diverse and inclusive organization that pursues meaningful, data-driven strategies for combating the racism that leads to and exacerbates homelessness, both on the public stage and in the communities we serve.
OUR STORY
Community Solutions founder Rosanne Haggerty spent 20 years developing affordable housing — but she couldn’t build apartments nearly as fast as homelessness and poverty were expanding.
So in 2011, she launched this organization to find solutions faster, by adapting successful problem-solving tools from other sectors. This approach is helping communities around the country end veteran and chronic homelessness. In Community Solutions’ first four years, our work helped 25 times as many people as our team’s previous 20 years of work — combined.
JOIN OUR TEAM
Come work with us. We seek mission-oriented people who are not satisfied with the status quo. Explore current job openings and benefits.
HELP END HOMELESSNESS
You can ensure that more communities end homelessness. We need your investment to continue making zero a reality.
