Community Solutions

Community Solutions tracks individuals experiencing homelessness and works with local agencies and nonprofits to monitor data on names and numbers of people entering and exiting homelessness, allowing resources to be shifted according to needs and outcomes. Community Solutions received a five-year, $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation in 2021 to eradicate homelessness in at least 50 politically diverse communities by 2026. ²

History

Community Solutions began in 2011 but previously had ties to Common Ground Community, an organization providing around 3,000 affordable homes in New York City. ³ Community Solutions no longer has ties to Common Ground Community, which now operates under the name Breaking Ground. ³

Community Solutions began in 2011 with the 100,000 Homes campaign that ran until 2014 in which communities around the country sought to house 105,000 homeless Americans. ³ From 2015 through 2020, Community Solutions launched the Built for Zero initiative to learn what it takes to house more people and drive overall homelessness down to functional zero. ³

Policies

Community Solutions views homelessness through a leftwing racial equity lens, stating that racism and homelessness are inextricably linked. ⁴ Community Solutions states that the current homeless response in America produces racial disparities. ⁴ Community Solutions affirms that African-American and Native American populations are impacted disproportionately by homelessness. ¹ Community Solutions states that overrepresentation of African-American and Native American homeless population is no accident but the result of historic and ongoing racism due to slavery and the violent theft of land. ¹

Community Solutions claims the response to homelessness should be addressed on a racially equitable response system within communities. ¹ Community Solutions works with A Way Home America (a homelessness justice organization), C4 Innovations (a racial equity and justice group for wellness), and Funders Together to End Homelessness (a grantmaking group that focuses on racial equity in funding, policy, and practice). ⁵

Programs

The current Built for Zero initiative by Community Solutions seeks to track homelessness in communities, work with other local and national nonprofits to provide affordable housing, and achieve functional zero homelessness in a community. ⁶ The U.S. Census Bureau measures homelessness using a point-in-time count that examines an estimated number of homeless persons at a particular time. ⁷ Built for Zero uses by-name data to track a person’s homeless status monthly to obtain better numbers of whether people are finding homes or if the problem is getting worse. ⁷

By following people on an individual level in communities and identifying them, Community Solutions provides data to local homeless offices and nonprofit as to the most current needs, changes in numbers of new people becoming homeless or those exiting their situation, and where to allocate resources. ⁷ Community Solutions works with local housing authorities, local governments, the Veterans Administration, and other nonprofits to meet and coordinate how to allocate resources to get homelessness down to zero. ⁴

Community Solutions’ Built for Zero program received a $100 million grant (over five years) in 2021 from the MacArthur Foundation for real and measurable progress to solving homelessness. ² Through this grant, Community Solutions promised to help in at least 50 geographically and politically diverse communities achieving 75 “proof points” by reaching and sustaining functional zero for chronic or veteran homelessness by 2026. ² Community Solutions’ MacArthur grant proposal promised that of the 75 communities in Built for Zero,  25 percent would be rural, 37 percent suburban, and 38 percent urban, including six of the 20 largest U.S. cities. ⁸ Community Solutions claims at least 105 communities are participating in the Built for Zero initiative with 42 achieving a measurable reduction in homelessness and 14 communities having functionally ended homelessness. ⁹

Funders

Community Solutions largest contributors include the MacArthur Foundation, Ballmer Group, Kaiser Permanente, Rocket Community Fund, Tableau Foundation, Home Depot Foundation, Bank of America, CommonSpirit, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, Melville Charitable Trust, Raikes Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, Select Equity, Annie E. Casey Foundation, USAA, Walker and Dunlop, Wayfair, Anne J. Caudal Foundation, and Cotopaxi. ¹⁰

Finances

In 2022, Community Solutions had net assets of $155,589,809. ¹¹ In 2022, Community Solutions recorded $29,723,761 in revenue and had $25,442,271 in expenses. ¹¹ In 2021, Community Solutions reported $122,989,223 in revenue and had $20,196,990 in expenses. ¹²

Leadership

Rosanne Haggerty is founder and president of Community Solutions since its inception in 2011. ¹³ From 1990 through 2011, Haggerty was the founder of Common Ground Community (now Breaking Ground), a support organization in New York City for homeless people. ¹⁴ Haggerty is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and winner of the Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism from the Rockefeller Foundation. ¹⁵ Haggerty has given at least $2,900 to Democratic candidates and organizations since 2008, including former President Barack Obama and the DNC Services Corp. ¹⁶