Frequently Asked Questions About Homelessness

People across the country are asking hard questions about homelessness. Why is it still so visible? What actually works? We’ve heard these questions in cities from San Diego to Atlanta to Denver. Here are honest answers.

Why does homelessness keep getting worse?

Homelessness has increased visibly in cities across the country over the past decade, and the frustration people feel is understandable and well-founded. For most residents, the evidence is immediate: encampments that weren’t there five years ago, people sleeping in doorways, a sense that the problem persists despite significant public spending.

For decades, cities relied on approaches that didn’t produce lasting results. Criminalization moved people from block to block without addressing underlying need. Emergency shelter provided temporary relief but no pathway to stable housing. Housing investments, when disconnected from a coordinated system, often missed the people who needed them most.

The result: visible homelessness persisted, and public trust eroded. Communities are now learning what a coordinated approach to homelessness actually requires — and the evidence is encouraging.

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Can homelessness actually be reduced? What does the evidence show?

Yes. Homelessness can be meaningfully and visibly reduced when communities act with speed, coordination, and accountability. Dozens of communities across the country — large and small — have demonstrated sustained progress.

Detroit has reduced veteran homelessness by 47% in three years, more than four times the national rate over the same period. Atlanta moved nearly 400 people experiencing homelessness from streets into stable housing in under 12 months. Gulfport, Mississippi, reduced chronic homelessness by 85% in six months. These results reflect a coordinated, data-driven approach — not a single program or one-time investment.

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How are communities leveraging social impact investments to close the housing gap?

Community Solutions has secured $135 million to close out the CS Large Cities Housing Fund, a first-of-its-kind social impact private equity fund that provides crucial housing resources to individuals exiting homelessness and middle-income individuals. The Fund represents an important advancement in the work to secure more affordable housing and address the challenge of homelessness in the United States. Here’s how it works:

Social Impact Capital 

• Instead of financing through Low Income Housing Tax Credits — which can take years — it uses investors who are interested in social impact, beyond making a return on their money.

Nonprofit Ownership

• The property is owned by national or local nonprofits who are not incentivized to maximize the profit of the property.

Connection to the Housing System

• The property is linked to the local housing system, rather than remaining a standalone piece of housing that is not connected to the ongoing needs of people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in the community. As units turn over and become vacant, the new model prioritizes the most vulnerable people experiencing housing instability for residence. 

Property Management Plus

• The property features an enhanced form of property management where residents are connected to social services before they can enter a situation where they become housing unstable and get evicted. For example: If a resident is unable to pay rent because they need urgent medical care, the building would help connect them to care first. 

Since launching in 2022, the Fund has acquired 1,155 apartment homes in six cities that are part of the Built for Zero movement to solve homelessness and housed over 270 individuals exiting homelessness. The Fund aims to acquire more than 2,500 housing units; half of the units will be permanently dedicated to people transitioning out of homelessness, including veterans and people experiencing chronic homelessness.

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What is a by-name list?

A by-name list is a comprehensive list of every person in a community experiencing homelessness, updated in real time. Using information collected and shared with their consent, each person on the list has a file that includes their name, homeless history, health, and housing needs.

By maintaining by-name data, communities are able to track the ever changing size and composition of their homeless population. They know current and detailed information on every homeless person in a given subpopulation.

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What is a homeless response system?

In general, the term “homeless response system” refers to the various organizations and entities within an area that serve homeless individuals and families. These providers can include nonprofit organizations, housing authorities, local and federal government agencies, faith-based organizations, the VA, shelter providers, and other homeless coalitions.

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What is a Continuum of Care?

The most structured piece of the homeless response system, which receives funding from The Department of Housing and Urban Development, is known as a Continuum of Care (CoC). HUD designed the CoC structure to promote community-wide planning and strategic use of resources to address homelessness by nonprofits, state and local governments, and other service providers.

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Why is homelessness more visible in some cities than others?

Cities that have adopted a coordinated approach to reducing homelessness — with real-time outreach, by-name tracking, and fast pathways to permanent housing — tend to see the most visible reduction in street homelessness. Cities still relying on fragmented, siloed responses tend to see homelessness persist in public spaces.

Other factors also affect visibility: climate, housing costs, city geography, and the strength of local systems. But the single most consistent predictor of visible progress is whether a community has built a coordinated, outcomes-driven homeless response system.

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What is a coordinated approach to reducing homelessness?

A coordinated approach to reducing homelessness means the organizations working on the problem — shelters, housing providers, health care systems, outreach workers, government agencies — operate as a unified system rather than independent silos.

In practice: outreach workers know people experiencing homelessness by name, not just by case number. A shared, real-time by-name list tracks every person in need so no one falls through the cracks. Housing placements happen quickly, matched to each person’s specific needs. Progress is measured by outcomes — people housed, and housed for good — not by program activities.

This model, developed through the Built for Zero campaign, has produced measurable reductions in homelessness in communities across 33 states.

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How does homelessness affect people with mental illness or substance use disorders?

Mental illness and substance use disorders are common among people experiencing chronic homelessness, and a well-functioning homeless response system addresses those needs directly. A small number of people experiencing homelessness have complex, long-term needs — including serious mental illness, substance use disorders, or repeated cycling through hospitals, shelters, and jails.

Targeted, intensive support — housing paired with health care, treatment, and ongoing case management — is the most effective approach for this group. People are housed first, then connected to services, with clear expectations for participation and progress. This approach has consistently outperformed treatment-first or shelter-first models.

Helping this group benefits entire communities, too. A small number of individuals often account for a large share of visible street homelessness and strain on emergency systems. When they stabilize, neighborhoods and emergency rooms do, too.

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What are the communities in Built for Zero?

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How do you measure progress on reducing homelessness?

Progress on reducing homelessness is measured through monthly data on how many people are experiencing homelessness, how quickly they’re being housed, and whether they remain stably housed. Communities in the Built for Zero network track this data in real time using run charts, a tool from improvement science that distinguishes sustained change from short-term fluctuation.

When data points show a consistent downward shift over time — known as a “shift” in run chart methodology — the community has changed its baseline, not just had a good month. The goal is a system that continuously performs: one where homelessness, when it occurs, is rare, brief, and unlikely to recur.

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Does Built for Zero’s by-name list introduce privacy concerns for vulnerable populations, i.e. by law enforcement?

In most communities, anyone on the by-name list will sign a consent form that stipulates who that can be shared with. Community teams decide who that data will be shared with, and in most communities, police are not among those parties.

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Are you experiencing or at risk of homelessness? Do you need assistance?

Use our new Homeless Resource Locator to easily find names and contact information of homeless service providers near you.