A Data-Driven Strategy to Solving Homelessness with Community Solutions

Featuring Rossane Haggerty, President, Community Solutions and Dan Health, author of Upstream

Rosanne: [00:00:05] When you're thinking about an issue like homelessness. But frankly, name that other complex challenge communities are facing. Practically every one of them is going to be a lot more solvable if you actually understand how a dynamic problem is moving and changing, where the opportunities are to intervene, like what's breaking down, what's working. So this very rapid feedback loop allows communities to do more of what's working to refine or just suspend, what isn't, to see where the problems and opportunities are within their system and to be optimizing all of their resources. [00:00:43][38.5]

Tulaine: [00:00:51] You're listening to System Catalysts. Each week you will hear personal stories of change makers who are bringing more inclusive connective system level solutions to our most persistent challenges. I'm Tulane Montgomery. In this episode, Jeff Walker spoke with our guests, Rosanne Haggerty and Danny. It's hard to get people to solve a problem they can't really see. This might seem obvious yet It can be difficult for organizations to consistently gather meaningful data, the kind of data that proves how services are tangibly improving people's lives. But even when you do have reliable data, it might not make much sense in isolation. Scientists rarely work alone in their quest to address a complex question. Organizations tackling the same social issue should also compare notes and share practice. Rosanne Haggerty, CEO of Community Solutions, has dedicated her entire career to getting people out of homelessness. But it wasn't until she brought organizations together to share information that she was able to make a dent in solving this issue. In today's episode, we will hear how a data driven, collaborative approach is a powerful method for tackling systemic problems. [00:02:31][99.2]

Rosanne: [00:02:32] I became interested in homelessness. Just out of college, I spent that year as a full time volunteer in a shelter for runaway and homeless young people in Times Square. The young people I was assigned to work with had pretty permanent problems, frankly, poverty. But families that were in deep crisis, they really very little in the way of social capital, as we'd now call it, but very few people to call on to provide any kind of pathway out of this life on and off the street. It was almost impossible to help them find a secure place to live or a place they could continue their education without kind of so stable arrangements that while there were a number of programs around how hard it was to just get started towards stability had very little to do with them. I'd spend my day trying to find a program, a landlord, a community college, an adult in their lives, and it was so much beyond whatever personal challenges that young person was facing. And it was pretty clear that everything that I thought at that point really existed as a set of resources or opportunities. It was really impossible for these young people to navigate without a consistent adult in their life, without some stability, without some flexible resources. And putting those particular ingredients together was nearly impossible. And so the awareness that this was not about individuals, but about really a confused, broken, incomprehensible system of support for people in housing crises, that was sort of like week one on the job as a volunteer realization. [00:04:22][109.5]

Tulaine: [00:04:26] Back then, people who were homeless would earn their way into housing after a series of steps. For example, they would go through substance abuse treatments, mental health supports or job training programs before they could be housed. But Rosen and others realized that without a stable place to live, it was nearly impossible for people to address any other issues. Based on this idea of Housing First. Roseanne founded an organization to develop affordable housing. But despite building nearly 3000 homes in New York City in the 1990s, overall homelessness continued to rise. [00:05:02][36.4]

Rosanne: [00:05:03] For all the fact that we're building all of these housing units, there are more people experiencing homelessness on the streets than ever before. And so it really begs the question, what are we getting right if our mission is really working toward ending homelessness, not simply running good programs like we were failing by that measure. And so that was the beginning of going to people experiencing homelessness on the street and saying, What are we getting wrong? It was out of those conversations with people who were struggling to even get into housing. And what we learned was you weren't even eligible to apply for buildings such as the ones that we were operating if you weren't coming through the shelter system. And so just beginning to unpeel that onion about like just how complicated all of us doing good work had made the process of getting housed once one had experienced homelessness and putting all of their requirements, meeting all the eligibility criteria going through this very complex process came to see that that was the thing that needed a great deal of collaboration among the organizations who each had a piece of that sign off for that resource or the exchange of information. And once we started working on that problem, how all the dots connected, we began getting calls from leaders in other cities just fascinated that we thought that it was possible to do something about all of this fragmentation that makes the lives of people who are dependent on any kind of not for profit or government service that makes it so hard to get that. And so all these other city leaders were calling us, asking us what we were learning. And we were learning back then that you needed to know people by name, that you needed to coordinate the support around them, that you had to have a really rigorous view of the problem in terms of how each step was unfolding, where you could take friction out of the process, measure progress in terms of how long it was taking to move individuals into housing and the issues that they were encountering about staying housed. And so this shift to a highly accountable, coordinated system, we began building in one neighborhood in New York City. And as we saw that this really was the key, not just having affordable housing, but having this accountable coordinated system around vulnerable people. We were really in this kind of informal learning network with these other city leaders. [00:07:28][144.6]

Tulaine: [00:07:30] And one of the organizations they came in touch with in this process was the Institute for Health Care Improvement. At the time, they were undertaking a campaign called the 100,000 Lives Campaign. Their aim, if you haven't guessed by the name, was to save the lives of 100,000 people. They did so by challenging the health care system to adopt practices that reduced avoidable deaths. [00:07:55][25.1]

Rosanne: [00:07:57] Things that were as simple as washing hands and having a certain set of practices that automatically were followed and certain conditions around a heart attack like these were practices that didn't require like a $2 million machine. It was human behavior rigorously followed that were shown and known for years and years to keep patients safe. And so we watched IAG challenge the health care system to step up and really make this shift and to in an 18 month period, save 100,000 lives that statistically would have been lost for these errors. We saw the power of just a real deadline, a really clear goal, that kind of moral challenge to motivate. Yeah, dedicated actors to focus on something that was hard but doable and. [00:08:53][56.1]

Tulaine: [00:08:54] Inspired by this, Rosanne and her collaborators launched the 100,000 Homes Campaign, and with it, Community Solutions was born. Over 180 cities joined the cause, resulting in more than 105,000 people housed. [00:09:10][15.4]

Rosanne: [00:09:12] It was really kind of breathtaking to see the readiness of our colleagues across the country to learn how to work differently toward a big shared goal. We really thought that collectively we'd make a huge dent in the overall number of chronically homeless individuals in the country. And when the HUD estimates came out the following year, there wasn't a corresponding 105,000 person reduction in chronic homelessness. So we're like, why did we miss? And nor had any community, though they had done absolutely heroic work in accelerating housing placements, coordinating across agencies. No one had come close to ending homelessness in their community. [00:09:55][43.5]

Tulaine: [00:09:57] Perplexed, Community Solutions decided to take a six month pause to do research and reflect. They realized that providing people with housing didn't actually fix the housing system. [00:10:08][11.1]

Rosanne: [00:10:09] We realized that if you want to end us this, that has to be your goal. Not just housing more people. But working back from what you most want, which is no. One experiencing homelessness as a way of life. And so we tested the waters and we had, I think initially 70 communities said, we don't know how we're going to do it, but we at that point were like, We're going to have to learn how to do this. This is what we all signed up for when we began this work of assisting and finding solutions to homelessness. [00:10:39][29.6]

Tulaine: [00:10:43] Instead of giving up community solutions, decided to pivot. And that was the beginning of Built for Zero, a movement that leverages shared data to end homelessness built for zero communities. 105 At this point, use real time data to identify the holes in the system that people who are homeless fall through. Key players such as nonprofits, local governments and housing authorities collaborate to fix these holes. This data driven, coordinated approach to homelessness was featured by author Dan Heath in his book Upstream The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. [00:11:20][36.8]

Dan: [00:11:21] I first remember hearing about community solutions from someone who's become a dear friend, Becky Margera, who ran the 100,000 Homes campaign. [00:11:33][11.7]

Tulaine: [00:11:34] That's Dan. [00:11:34][0.3]

Dan: [00:11:36] I remember just being so struck by not only the sheer ambition of what they were up to, but beyond that. I remember looking over her shoulder. She said, you know, I want to show you something. And she had some before and after photos of some of the people they had housed. And she knew them by name. I mean, I still remember some of their names. There's this one before and after photo that's kind of burned into my brain. And the first shot. This guy named Ed, who was homeless in L.A. for many, many years. And it was kind of a hard case, long time alcoholic. Virtually no one thought he would succeed in getting housed or staying there. And in fact, the opposite proved true. He thrived once he had a place to live. He started to get involved, you know, on the board of his apartment complex. And I remember the initial introduction to him was just two photos, one of what he looked like when he was on the streets. And one what he looked like maybe a year after he had moved into his own place. And I remember being so moved by these photos, I was literally, you know, trying to kind of brush away tears. I wanted to see macho. Like, I wouldn't tear up so easily. But it was amazing. I mean, it was like in two photos, you could see everything about why they did the work they did and the importance of it, as well as the obvious fact that it was succeeding. I mean, these photos might as well have been two different human beings. And so I was hooked. And from that day forward, I jumped at any opportunity to help. [00:13:12][96.5]

Dan: [00:14:13] I think what's always struck me about community solutions is that they are obsessed with outcomes. And I know these days that's almost like a cliché in the nonprofit world, you know, outcomes, outcomes, outcomes. But I'll tell you, nine out of ten nonprofits that I've come across, I think whether or not they talk a good talk, ultimately they're in the effort based on intentions based business. They feel like if they put up a good fight, if they raise money, if they do well intentioned, good hearted programs, if they if they work hard, like that's enough. And Community Solutions does not believe that it's not enough until something has happened. It's not enough until someone has been taken off the street and put into a home. That's when you can celebrate, not before. And effort doesn't matter. Intention doesn't matter. What matters is solving the problem. And I think their approach to data really makes that value shine through. Because years ago, you know, the way that you got data on the homeless population was, as I understand it, the federal government required these different communities to do what they called a point in time census. So, you know, maybe one evening in April, you get a team of people to go around in your town and you try to do like a manual count of the homeless population. Now, interestingly, because this is uncomfortable work and it's, you know, happening at midnight and this is not normal hours. And, you know, people tended to count the easy population, which is where they're in the shelters. So you kind of go from shelter to shelter and you count heads. You send that number to the government. Then you don't do that again until the next April. I mean, this is just a totally outrageous way to approach this problem. The idea that you get one number per year. Could it just be a function of the weather the night that you counted? You know, how do you take any of those numbers seriously? And more to the point, how do you manage to them? [00:16:14][120.9]

Tulaine: [00:16:15] In other words, we can't tackle homelessness or any issue, for that matter, without reliable data to measure our progress. [00:16:21][6.3]

Dan: [00:16:22] It's as simple as that. If we can't assess whether we're succeeding, what is the point? And so they completely re-engineered. The way to approach data moving from a one point a year census to a real time count of the homeless population and whatever town they were working in. So I visited Rockford, which is one of their shining success stories. It's a city in Illinois. And I looked over their shoulder. So they've got a Google doc. Maybe it's a different technology now, but at that time I was a Google doc, and it's literally the name of every person who was homeless at that moment in Rockford. You know, line two of the Google doc is Larry. It's like, well, who saw Larry last? Well, he was under the bridge and he was visited last Thursday. He's been showing up for lunch at the shelter, blah, blah, blah. And to maintain that census, if you think about it, I mean, you have to have such good tabs on what's happening in your community. You have to know where homeless people are living and you have to get to know them by name. You have to get to know their conditions. And how long have they been on the street? What's their backstory? What are their health needs? And so with this real time census for the first time, it completely changed the complexion of how you approach homelessness, because now it's not. Happening at a policy or programmatic level where, you know, you kind of get together in the Marriott Ballroom and you think enlightened thoughts about how to change things for homelessness. No, no, no. It's all about, hey, line two is Larry. How do we get Larry off the streets and into housing as quickly as possible? And to my mind, that switch from macro to micro changed everything. [00:18:12][109.6]

Jeff: [00:18:13] Yeah, I think that unique data orientation is something that could be learned by others and modeled by others and can use solutions. Is is a great place to look at how they did that. How reasonable do you think it is to start applying that kind of on the ground? Name by name orientation to other nonprofit or problem focused coalitions? [00:18:39][25.3]

Dan: [00:18:40] I'll be honest, when I first heard about it, I thought it was nuts. I thought, you know, how could you ever sustain that? We talk these days about, you know, systems level changes. I mean, that's the very point of your podcast. And when you think systems, you think hundreds of thousands or millions or hundreds of millions of people. Right. So how can you ever move a problem denominated in millions? One at a time. You know, that was my starting logic. And then after I really got to know community solutions and got to know the work, my thinking on it kind of flipped, which is you can't help a million people until you understand how to help. On the road to a million goes through one and two and three and four. And what happens is in the act of ensuring that you're helping one, two, three, four, ten, 20, 30 people, what happens is you begin to uncover the policy and programmatic levers that are keeping them in that problematic situation. Right? You don't start with policy. You evolve into policy because you don't really understand what policy levers are even relevant until you have in your brain 50 specific case studies of human beings who you have helped through your work. And so I think Community Solutions has this right. It's like you've got to start granular and you've got to prove to yourself that you know what you're doing, that you're helping people, that you can point to specific human beings that have had their lives improved by virtue of your work. And then you can zoom out from there. But I don't think it always works the other way. [00:20:23][102.6]

Tulaine: [00:20:26] This data is gathered across different organizations that might come into contact with people who are homeless at one point or another. Community Solutions job is to aggregate this information and provide a big picture of where systems can be improved. It is up to each community to then do the work to refine those systems locally. [00:20:44][17.8]

Rosanne: [00:20:46] What we represent really is an invitation and a set of supports and tools and a learning community because the work in communities and is 105 places in this country, it's the local team that does the work. But with our support, we've developed the data tools and some of the technology that makes collaboration easier. We've provided the quality improvement, coaching and facilitation help and support where doing the evaluation and case study development and sharing about what's working in one place that could be adapted in others. And so it's really those network functions and those core training and sort of scaling functions that our team supports. But it's these extraordinary local groups that are doing the work, and that's what makes this model so transferable. It doesn't rely on us to come to your town and set up a program. In fact, it's all about you. And how do we make you and your team successful in executing this work in a manner that really gets you moving towards zero? [00:21:53][67.3]

Jeff: [00:21:54] So then do you go to a city and look for those people or do they come to you? And then how does that come together? Talk about who's involved in that local community or the local partnership? [00:22:05][10.4]

Rosanne: [00:22:06] Well, we found with this issue with the issue of homelessness, they're really five key entities in any community that need to be working together. And often communities will start with maybe just two or three groups who've said, you know, we've seen the problem and it's us and the way we're working and are just like, how do we begin to actually shift the way we work? And it's the continuum of care, which is the collection of not for profits that apply for and receive HUD funding for homeless services. So it's the S.O.S., the mayor's office of the largest city, the county staff who often control many of the human services resources, and then the housing authority or authorities that are active in that area because they manage most of the affordable housing resources, the vouchers, and even some of the units. And then lastly, that seat is whether if you're focused on homeless veterans, it's the VA. If you're focused on homeless young people, it's the youth serving organizations. The training we find is really in how you collaborate and how you use data for problem solving and for learning. But we don't supply it to communities, but we help communities learn how to assemble it. And it involves getting all of the key organizations who are providing services to those experiencing homelessness to put all of their information in one place. To have this as a shared asset. [00:23:38][91.5]

Tulaine: [00:23:43] This coordinated way of working has been game changing. 14 of the 105 built four zero communities have achieved functional zero for at least one population, such as the chronically unhoused or veterans. Functional zero. A term borrowed from public health means that homelessness is rare and short lived at the population level. More importantly, there is a system in place to identify and. Dress homelessness as soon as it arises. [00:24:11][28.4]

Rosanne: [00:24:13] When you're thinking about an issue like homelessness, but frankly, name that other challenge communities are facing, practically every one of them is going to be a lot more solvable if you actually understand how a dynamic problem is moving and changing, where the opportunities are to intervene. Like what's breaking down? Yeah, like what's working. So this very rapid feedback loop allows communities to do more of what's working to refine or suspend, what isn't, to see where the problems and opportunities are within their system and to be optimizing all of their resources. It's jarring. The degree to which lack of coordination and for years contracting by government agencies and the world of homeless services has rewarded just individual program work and outcomes. And so organizations have been oddly disenchanted from collaborating. So the data and the practices around collaboration enabled by data are really at the core of for zero and why communities are seeing success and using what they have to much greater impact, in effect. [00:25:25][71.7]

Tulaine: [00:25:31] Due to their incredible success in collaborating with others, the MacArthur Foundation awarded them with a $100 million grant. Their contribution will help Community Solutions fund their five year strategic plan. Their goal is to accelerate an end to homelessness in 75 communities. Community Solutions approach is so powerful because it has allowed them to get proximate to the issue. Dan, who has written about several nonprofits, believes this to be key for people engaged in social change. [00:26:00][29.7]

Jeff: [00:26:02] If you're talking to their audience, here is people who might be at school looking to where they want to go work, or might be people looking for their next gig after, you know, you're working in an NGO or for profit, which they look for. They say, I want to do some more things like this. I want to find organizations like that. How would you go about advising them to tell where to look? [00:26:24][21.6]

Dan: [00:26:25] I think a lot of people are not going to like this advice, but I'm going to give it anyway. And that is, I think if you're serious about a career in the social sector trying to help people, I think you got to go get to know those people. I've had a couple of experiences that just. And it really changed my thinking. In one case, I was part of a committee that was going to provide an award for someone trying to start a social sector organization, a social enterprise. And somebody came in with this idea about a BOGO motto, Buy one, get one. And they used to be the flavor of the month. Hmm. And it was maybe I would go buy a case of energy bars, and then by virtue of my purchase, a similar case would be sent to someone who was food insecure. And so we were just talking through this idea and how it work. And at one point the question was raised like, how did you get to know people who are hungry or the food insecure? Like what? And the answer that came out. Long story short, is basically they didn't they had never met anyone that was that was food insecure. It was just a theoretical problem. Right. And and so you look at that, I'm telling you, that sounds weird, but it happens all the time. You know, you get really smart, well-educated people who care a lot, Right? Their heart is in the right place. They have insanely talented minds. But what they don't have is the wisdom that comes from exposure, that comes from getting more proximate to the problem they're trying to solve. And I think what happens a lot of times is people want to skip straight from in a university into some organization where you're thinking about these problems. And I think they skip the step of, no, you got to see this problem for yourself. I mean, Becky Margera, my friend who I was talking about earlier, who did 100,000 homes campaign. That campaign wasn't started in a ballroom. That campaign was started with her in Times Square at two in the morning trying to get the guy who was trying to drink, you know, cleaning fluid off the street. I mean, that's the way you get to know a problem. That's the way you unlock solutions and that's the way you become a wiser leader. [00:28:43][138.4]

Tulaine: [00:28:45] And now our rapid fire. [00:28:47][1.6]

Jeff: [00:28:50] What's one word to describe your journey as this system catalyst? [00:28:52][2.2]

Rosanne: [00:28:54] Learning. [00:28:54][0.0]

Jeff: [00:28:55] What's been one of the most gratifying moments along this journey? [00:28:58][2.8]

Rosanne: [00:28:59] That people have been with us. That's the joy of it. It's the relationships. And it's just such a virtuous circle of learning and progress. [00:29:09][9.7]

Jeff: [00:29:10] And what about your organization keeps you up at night. [00:29:12][2.0]

Rosanne: [00:29:14] Keeping everyone on the same page? You know, I think in the world of remote work and the stresses of the times, that it just keep everyone focused on the goal and not getting discouraged when the work is hard and things don't move quickly. Those are the kinds of things. [00:29:30][16.8]

Jeff: [00:29:32] For listeners who aspire to be a system catalyst. How do you think they should start maybe becoming one of the local ones that are working your cities? Or what do you think? [00:29:39][7.0]

Rosanne: [00:29:40] Well, you know, we started very local without even imagining that we would be working nationally at this level. But I think now that there's almost a name for this practice and the growing awareness that basically all the heart problems we have are systems problems that require a new level of coordination and pulling people together around a shared aim. I think whatever the issue is, who are the other people working on it? I think we have to resist the reflex to start our own not for profit. I think part of it is like, how do we pull together existing efforts and then whatever that the connective tissue role is. That's what the new thing should be. And it doesn't necessarily need to be a new entity, but it has to be someone's job. You got to get people to work with. You got to get people to believe that there is, at least with a small group, that you can go farther together and create that shared aim. So the advice to System catalyst connect with others and develop a common vision and a clear, measurable goal and a time frame, invite others in and just start learning. But do it with the rigor of having data behind you and some agreement about how you're going to measure progress. [00:30:57][77.3]

If you want to learn more about community solutions, head on over to community.solutions.