There are some social problems that, unfortunate as they are, just need to be accepted. They will always exist to one degree or another. One of those problems most people have resigned themselves to is homelessness.

Rosanne Haggerty is not most people. 

“We really misunderstood this issue,” says Ms. Haggerty, the chief executive of Community Solutions, a New York nonprofit that helps communities use data and design to rethink complex problems affecting their most vulnerable residents. The group’s 100,000 Homes Campaign worked with 186 communities across the country to house more than 100,000 chronically homeless people in just four years.

In this edition of the Business of Giving, Ms. Haggerty talks about challenging longstanding assumptions about homelessness and connecting the dots — governmental, economic, medical — that contribute to it. And she tells how her organization is helping bring together the relevant actors to create solutions that go beyond building shelters and make it easier for people to get themselves off the street permanently.