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
Giants 400 | Aug 7, 2015
MULTIFAMILY AEC GIANTS: Slowdown prompts developers to ask: Will the luxury rentals boom hold?
For the last three years, rental apartments have occupied the hot corner in residential construction, as younger people gravitated toward renting to be closer to urban centers and jobs. But at around 360,000 annual starts, multifamily might be peaking, according to BD+C's 2015 Giants 300 report.
High-rise Construction | Aug 7, 2015
Tribute tower to cricket world champs will be Sri Lanka’s tallest
The 1996 Iconic Tower will be a tribute to the country’s cricket team, which won the World Cup in 1996.
Multifamily Housing | Aug 5, 2015
FacadeRetrofit.org: A new database for tracking commercial and multifamily façade upgrades
The site allows users to submit information about new projects, or supplement information on those already posted.
High-rise Construction | Jul 29, 2015
Jerusalem to get a high-rise pyramid by Daniel Libeskind
Are pyramids making a comeback? The city of Paris recently approved a triangle-shaped building that stirred controversy from residents. Now, the city of Jerusalem gave Libeskind's pyramid tower the go-ahead.
Contractors | Jul 29, 2015
Consensus Construction Forecast: Double-digit growth expected for commercial sector in 2015, 2016
Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date, according to AIA's latest Consensus Construction Forecast.
High-rise Construction | Jul 28, 2015
Work begins on KPF's 'flared silhouette' tower in Manhattan
The 62-story, 157-unit luxury condo tower widens at the 40th floor, resulting in a gently flared silhouette, accented by a sculpted crown.
Multifamily Housing | Jul 27, 2015
Miami developers are designing luxury housing to cater to out-of-town buyers and renters
The Miami Herald reports on several new multifamily projects, including the Paramount Miami Worldcenter, whose homes include maid’s rooms, larger terraces, boutique-size closets, and guest suites.
Multifamily Housing | Jul 20, 2015
At an 18-year high, multifamily construction continues to drive housing sector
Predictions that multifamily housing construction would taper off in 2015 may have underestimated the ongoing demand for this kind of housing, the vast majority of which is being marketed as rentals.
Multifamily Housing | Jul 16, 2015
Minneapolis relaxes parking requirements on new multifamily buildings
The city cut the number of spots required for large developments by half. It also will accept plans with no parking spaces in certain cases.
Codes and Standards | Jul 16, 2015
Berkeley, Calif., adopts balcony inspection program following deadly collapse
Apartment building balconies will be subject to inspections every three years under new regulations adopted following a deadly collapse.