Can Built for Zero work in Topeka?

TOPEKA (KSNT) – ‘Built for Zero’ is a model based around the idea that homelessness can be more than just managed, but rather solved.

With 140 different communities across the country using this model, now including Topeka, they all have the same end goal, and that’s to reach ‘functional zero.’ Once at functional zero, this means a system has the availability to house more homeless people every month than the number of those experiencing life out on the streets. In other words, making homelessness a rare occurrence in a community.

To see if this is possible, 27 News went to the source for Built for Zero. She says in order to do this, communities have to come together and agree with one another to work towards a shared goal.

“And that foundation of really seeing this as a community-wide effort is kind of the basis for built for zero,” Community Solutions Dor. of Large Scale Change, Melanie Lewis Dickerson said. “And that’s what we’ve seen really be transformational across communities across the country.”

While Dickerson says there’s been notable success among other communities, it’s no secret that they find different routes to achieve that success. So approaches that may work for one city, might not work for another.

However, if there’s one thing in common for all of them, it’s a real-time data approach. While having the data is great, Lamanda Broyles with the Topeka Rescue Mission has her concerns.

“We have data that is showing that multiple people are wanting to access housing, multiple people are trying to get resources in place, and so if our community doesn’t have those things though, the data piece of showing everyone that needs the resources is not going to help solve it, because we don’t have the recourses in place to match it,” Broyles said.

If implemented correctly, Broyles does believe movement and change can be made with ‘Built for Zero. She says TRM hopes to be a partner in this change if done correctly. One city that Dickerson tells 27 News has seen this change is Denver. Over the last four years, in Denver, veteran homelessness dropped thirty percent.

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