flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Kaiser Permanente takes aim at reducing chronic homelessness

Multifamily Housing

Kaiser Permanente takes aim at reducing chronic homelessness

Initiatives include a multimillion-dollar investment fund, and collaborating with a group that works with communities to house the unsheltered.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | March 11, 2019
Kaiser Permanente takes aim at reducing chronic homelessness

The number of homeless living on the Hawaiian island of Oahu increased by 12% last year. On that island, Honolulu, the state’s capital, is one of 15 communities nationwide where Kaiser Permanente and Community Solutions are working together to reduce chronic homelessness. Image: Photo by Ivan Lizarde on Unsplash

Kaiser Permanente has entered into a partnership with Community Solutions to accelerate efforts to end chronic homelessness in 15 communities within the healthcare system’s national footprint.

Over the next three years, Kaiser Permanente will provide $3 million to Community Solutions’ Built for Zero initiative, which since 2015 has used real-time data and existing resources to help 10 communities house more than 65,227 veterans and another 38,583 chronically homeless Americans. The organization estimates that, on any given night, as many as 125,000 people are chronically homeless in America today.

A spokesperson for Community Solutions, Jake McGuire, tells BD+C that his organization’s purpose is to assist communities in pulling together homeless information into one database that would be updated monthly, as the first step toward devising testable strategies to address homelessness.

Those solutions will vary by community. But the goal is to place homeless individuals and families into permanent housing with appropriate support services and case management. McGuire says that it’s less about building new apartments than about unifying a community’s disparate efforts to reduce chronic homelessness.

Kaiser Permanente is one of several partners working with Community Solutions. Others include The Home Depot Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., The Ballmer Group, and Tableau Foundation, which provides data analytics software.

Six of the 15 Kaiser Permanent communities participating in Built for Zero are in California: Sacramento and Sacramento County, Marin County, Richmond and Contra Costa County, Fresno and Madera County, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and Santa Cruz County; Bakersfield and Kern County, and Riverside County. The other participating markets are Washington D.C., Baltimore, Montgomery County, Md., Arlington County, Va., Fairfax, Va., Denver, Atlanta, and Honolulu.

Rosanne Haggerty (center), president of Community Solutions, speaking at Austin's South by Southwest Conference, where she announced a partnership with Kaiser Permanente, whose Chief Community Health Officer Bechara Choucair is sitting to her right. Bobby Watts, CEO, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, is to Haggerty's left. Image: Community Solutions.

 

The news of the alliance between Kaiser and Community Solutions was made public today during a panel discussion at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. The panelists were Bechara Choucair, M.D., Chief Community Health Officer for Kaiser Permanente; Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Laurel Blatchford, president of Enterprise Community Partners; and Rosanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions.

In January, Kaiser Permanente announced separately its commitment to house 500 chronically homeless people over the age of 50 in Oakland, Calif. Last year, Kaiser created its Thriving Communities Fund, a $200 million investment fund focused on addressing affordable housing and other factors that contribute to homelessness.

There are just under 553,000 people who, on a given night, are homeless in the U.S. Approximately 35% are them are unsheltered, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. About 36,000 of these homeless are unaccompanied youths under 25 years old. Half of all homeless people are located in five states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Washington

HUD estimates that while chronic homelessness—i.e., someone with a disability who has been homeless for at least a year—is considerably below what it was a decade ago, it has been inching up over the past two years. HUD estimates that nearly one quarter (24%) of all homeless people experience chronic patterns of homelessness, and nearly two-third of these chronically homeless are unsheltered.

The persistent shortage of affordable housing in the U.S. hasn’t helped matters. While the connection between affordability and homelessness may not be as palpable as it was during the last recession—when nearly four million homes were foreclosed each year—many people nevertheless are worried that affordable shelter, either owned or rented, seems out of reach for so many.

Nearly three out of four American households believe the nation is suffering from a housing affordability crisis, according to a representative survey of 2,203 adults that the National Association of Home Builders conducted last November. Seventy-three percent of those polled said that a lack of affordable housing was a problem in the U.S., 68% said this was an issue in their state, and 54% saw it as an issue in the neighborhood.

Related Stories

Legislation | May 20, 2022

Arlington County, Virginia may legalize multifamily housing countywide

Arlington County, Va., a Washington, D.C.-area community, is considering proposed legislation that would remove zoning restrictions on multifamily housing up to eight units in size.

Multifamily Housing | May 11, 2022

Kitchen+Bath AMENITIES – Take the survey for a chance at a $50 gift card

MULTIFAMILY DESIGN + CONSTRUCTION is conducting a research study on the use of kitchen and bath products in the $106 billion multifamily construction sector.

Sponsored | BD+C University Course | May 10, 2022

6 steps to designing a modern wine display

Design-focused wine displays are becoming increasingly popular in amazing residential and commercial properties throughout the world. Top design/build professionals are using stylish wine racks and other premium materials to create wine cellars that are too beautiful to hide in out-of-the-way places like dusty basements. This course explains why wine cellars have become so popular and the key aspects of designing an appealing modern wine cellar, broken into six planning steps that should be considered during pre- or early-construction phases.

Multifamily Housing | May 10, 2022

Multifamily rents up 14.3% in 2022

The average U.S. asking rent for multifamily housing increased $15 in April to an all-time high of $1,659, according to Yardi Matrix.

Sponsored | Multifamily Housing | May 8, 2022

Choosing the right paver system for rooftop amenity spaces

This AIA course by Hoffmann Architects offers best practices for choosing the right paver system for rooftop amenity spaces in multifamily buildings.

Building Team | May 6, 2022

Atlanta’s largest adaptive reuse project features cross laminated timber

Global real estate investment and management firm Jamestown recently started construction on more than 700,000 sf of new live, work, and shop space at Ponce City Market. 

Multifamily Housing | May 5, 2022

An Austin firm touts design and communal spaces in its student housing projects

Rhode Partners has multiple towers in various development stages.

Sponsored | BD+C University Course | May 3, 2022

For glass openings, how big is too big?

Advances in glazing materials and glass building systems offer a seemingly unlimited horizon for not only glass performance, but also for the size and extent of these light, transparent forms. Both for enclosures and for indoor environments, novel products and assemblies allow for more glass and less opaque structure—often in places that previously limited their use.

Multifamily Housing | May 3, 2022

Call for Kitchen+Bath projects and products – for next issue of "MULTIFAMILY Design+Construction" (no charge to participate!)

Multifamily AEC firms and developers and product manufacturers can submit Kitchen+Bath projects and products – for the next issue of "MULTIFAMILY Design+Construction."

Multifamily Housing | May 1, 2022

Kraus-Anderson helps fill void in tight Twin Cities housing market

One project just came online, and another apartment building should be completed this summer.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Curtain Wall

7 steps to investigating curtain wall leaks

It is common for significant curtain wall leakage to involve multiple variables. Therefore, a comprehensive multi-faceted investigation is required to determine the origin of leakage, according to building enclosure consultants Richard Aeck and John A. Rudisill with Rimkus. 




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021