Functional Zero Homelessness
Description
Exploring Functional Zero Homelessness: A Benchmark Towards Ending Homelessness
Definition
Functional Zero Homelessness is a benchmark signifying that a community possesses fewer homeless individuals than the number of people it can rehouse promptly, ensuring that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. Achieving functional zero is a significant objective in initiatives aimed at ending homelessness.
Description
Functional Zero Homelessness is an approach for communities to address homelessness in a transformative manner. It's not about reducing homelessness to absolute zero, but rather, creating a responsive system that ensures homelessness, when occurs, is a brief and isolated event. Such a system constantly assesses its capacity and ensures there are more than enough resources like immediate shelter to accommodate its homeless population promptly, making homelessness non-recurring.
Objectives
- To ensure that every individual or family who becomes homeless within a community can be swiftly moved into stable housing
- To minimize periods of homelessness to be brief and non-recurring
- To build a strong support infrastructure that always has more resources than the size of its homeless population
- To prevent systemic and chronic homelessness
Mechanisms
- Constant monitoring and comprehensive data gathering about the city's homeless population
- Regular reassessment of the system's capacity to accommodate people experiencing homelessness
- Creating a responsive homelessness service system that can adapt to changes in the homeless population
- Building necessary partnerships and collaborations with housing providers, homeless services, and government entities
- Influencing policy change and securing funding at all levels to bolster resources
Benefits
- Reduced prevalence and duration of homelessness in the community
- Improved quality of life and stability for formerly homeless individuals and families
- More efficient use of community resources and budget allocation
- This leads to healthier communities with increased social cohesion and decreased crime rates
Challenges
- Need for robust data collection and interpretation techniques
- Sufficient resource mobilization and availability
- Sustaining political and community will
- Ensuring cooperation and coordination among various stakeholders
Examples
- Rockford, Illinois, became the first US city to reach functional zero for veteran homelessness in 2015.
- Bergen County, New Jersey achieved a functional zero in veteran homelessness in 2016 and chronic homelessness in 2017.
- Adelaide, South Australia, is aiming to achieve functional zero homelessness by 2020.
