Can Clark County be ‘Built for Zero’ when it comes to the homeless?

Crater Region of southeast Virginia once painted a similar picture to Clark County’s ongoing housing crisis. The number of unhoused residents kept growing, and community leaders, like Holmes, were at odds and searching for solutions.

But three years later, the community organizations celebrated that they had eradicated all barriers to house every homeless veteran in the area and were on their way to do the same for everyone else.

They did it by using data.

Crater Region is just one of the more than 80 communities — including Clark County — that are using the “Built for Zero” data model to flip the script on how people have historically addressed homelessness.

The comprehensive model is the brainchild of the national nonprofit Community Solutions, which argues that instead of counting up to a target housing placement, communities should count down to a “functional zero” level for homelessness by cataloging people experiencing homelessness in real time.

The functional zero metric does not mean there are no individuals experiencing homelessness within the community. Instead, it means the unhoused population is low enough that it is manageable to house people as soon as they enter the system.

“Reaching functional zero was a point of relief,” said Erica Holmes, who oversees the data collection in Virginia. “We were finally able to have a process in place that everybody understood how to connect people to services and use that in other avenues to addressing homelessness.”

Since its conception, 44 cities have achieved a measurable reduction in their unhoused population. Fourteen have reached functional zero for chronic homelessness. Thirteen have reached functional zero for veterans.

Three have achieved both.

“We want homelessness for all to be brief and rare, and for it to be the only time they are experiencing (homelessness) — and data can be used to stop the cycle,” said Lauren D’Amico, senior strategy lead with Community Solutions.

“During those meetings, we go name by name and determine what their barriers to housing are and then who on the team can assist with that particular barrier,” said Jamie Spinelli, the homeless response coordinator with the city’s Homelessness Assistance and Resource Team, also known as HART.

Spinelli said that the data model has helped the organizations communicate better and not waste time duplicating services. She also said that more people have been served due to the by-name lists, as well as more funding toward outreach workers.

“Too often folks can fall through the cracks, so a regular review and making sure that we’re having communication around the process is effective and makes us more accountable to each other,” said Sunny Wonder, deputy director for the Council for the Homeless.

What the numbers say

Historically, communities rely on the Point-in-Time Count to keep track of who is experiencing homelessness. But many housing advocates have pointed to the most common challenge to the annual headcount: it is only one day per year. That leaves wiggle room for an undercount that can impact how resources are distributed.

This led many to adopt the by-name list to get a more timely picture of the communities’ unhoused population.

“(The by-name list) is real-time data. It’s not just the one-time snapshot that we get in the Point-in-Time Count,” said Cody Shaw, coordinated outreach manager for the Council for the Homeless.

In 2022, Clark County’s Point-in-Time Count highlighted 1,197 people were experiencing homelessness in January. Around that same time, the by-name list was tracking around 1,600 people on the list. According to the county’s by-name list, the national median for people on the by-name list ranged around 2,123 last year.

The by-name list also tracks the inflow and outflow. Last year, the data showed that people entering Clark County’s system were new to houselessness. And a majority of those who left homelessness were because they were inactive — meaning they moved, were temporarily housed, or stopped accessing services, according to Community Solutions’ definition.

“Every time we have one of those meetings, it’s a success when someone is being taken off of (the list),” said Wonder. “Homelessness is traumatizing and a lot of work and overwhelming so if there is any part of that we can remove — it’s absolutely worthwhile.”

Beyond the numbers and limitations

Ask any person working in the housing and support sector, and they will say that homelessness requires a multifaceted solution. But one positive impact stakeholders have found through Built for Zero is the collaboration of community organizations coming together despite their differences of opinions and working as one unit.

“The (data model) is also really helping break down silos in communities … and not just say, ‘my agency, my client’ — but everyone working together for, ‘our community, our goal,’ ” said D’Amico.

But although the model aids communities in knowing who is experiencing homelessness and what resources they need, providing permanent shelter continues to challenge areas in permanently eradicating homelessness.

“Biggest challenge: lack of affordable housing,” said Clara Johnson, Council for the Homeless coordinated outreach director.

Stakeholders concede that their biggest challenge is finding housing for the people they identify in their by-name lists.

“We can have all the resources in the world, but with a 2 percent vacancy rate, we don’t have the space to actually house all of these individuals on the list,” said Shaw.

Is it possible for Clark County to reach zero?

The Built for Zero model understands that no two communities have the same timeline.

“Seeing the successes that (other communities) had moving toward functional zero, and recognizing that every single community, the challenges are both very similar and also very unique,” said Wonder. “We’re going to have different experiences in our community versus other communities across the country.”

Clark County still has work to do to reach functional zero, but recent data does show the area going in the right direction.

The county reached its peak of people accessing services in October 2022, with 2,523 people identified in the by-name list for chronic, veteran, and youth homelessness. But as of March, the list has dropped to 2,060 people.

“We’re really starting to see tangible results in a very real way now,” said Shaw. “We got to this place where the numbers are decreasing and we’re getting results.”