Community Solutions

Community Solutions is a nonprofit founded in 2011 by Rosanne Haggerty that works to end homelessness in the United States. Its approach is systems-level: rather than treating individual circumstances alone, it addresses structural and systemic failures in how communities respond to homelessness. The organisation is headquartered at 519 Rockaway Ave in Brooklyn, New York, and operates with communities across the country.

The technical work centres on data-driven impact measurement, real-time data collection and coordinated community response systems. Communities instrument their homelessness response with current, by-name data, use it to coordinate action across agencies, and hold themselves accountable for measurable reductions. The stated focus areas include prevention, rapid housing placement and the expansion of affordable housing.

The main programme, Built for Zero, is a national movement of more than 100 cities and counties that use these methods to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The organisation reports that in its first four years it helped 25 times as many people as its team's previous 20 years of combined work. It partners with funders and institutions including the MacArthur Foundation, Ballmer Group, Kaiser Permanente and the Home Depot Foundation.

Community Solutions works across homelessness services, affordable housing, public policy, public health and the wider nonprofit and social services sector.