County Leaders Aim for Functional Zero by 2030 Through Housing First Strategies and Community Collaboration
Just outside Baltimore, local leaders have launched an ambitious plan to reach a “functional zero” level of homelessness — a state in which the number of people needing housing is less than the number of available housing units in the area. If all goes well, they’ll be able to achieve this milestone within the next 5 years through a combination of adding shelters and increasing access to existing programs.
The Howard County Coalition to End Homelessness
Howard County’s strategic plan to end homelessness within 5 years is known as The Path Toward Zero.
“The Path Toward Zero builds upon our progress already made and further lays the foundation for transformative, long-term solutions that ensure everyone in Howard County has a place to call home,” Executive Calvin Ball said in a statement.
The plan has been drafted by The Howard County Coalition to End Homelessness, which is composed of representatives from several local organizations, including Howard County Government, the Howard County Public School System, nonprofit agencies, business leaders, faith communities, advocates, and individuals with lived experience.
The stated mission of the coalition is “to make homelessness a rare, brief, and one-time experience in Howard County.”
What Is Functional Zero?
The concept of functional zero is a measurable goal that enables people who become homeless in the area to be identified and rehoused promptly, without re-entering homelessness.
It is known as functional zero because the strategy does not aim to eliminate homelessness entirely or promise that no one will ever experience homelessness again. According to the coalition, “Functional Zero means the number of people entering the homeless response system does not exceed the community’s capacity to provide housing support and services, ensuring positive exits from homelessness in real time.”
The Path Toward Zero
Howard County’s 5-year plan to achieve a functional zero level of local homelessness is designed to prioritize the voices of those with lived experience of homelessness to achieve community-wide collaboration and implement data-driven, people-centered solutions through shared resources across adjacent service systems.
Practically speaking, The Path Toward Zero will increase access to timely support services that work well for the people they’re serving, expand collaboration and encourage coordinated community response, and also have annual check-ins to evaluate the data, consult with lived experience experts, and tailor the program to work even better in the years ahead.
Homelessness in Howard County
According to recent Point in Time counts, Howard County has had anywhere between 300 and 450 homeless people on any given year in the past decade. Over the last 4 years, housing capacity has hovered around 150 to 200. That leaves a significant gap that the county is now working hard to close as it strives to match the number of people entering homelessness to the number of people exiting.
The length of time people are spending homeless is also longer than officials would like, with the average self-reported length of homelessness being 245 days over the past 5 years and an average shelter stay of 129 days.
Rental Unit Gaps Analysis
An analysis has been done to determine the number of affordable housing units necessary to house the local population of low-income renters of various different categories. It showed that just over 3,500 additional rental units priced at $625 or less would be needed to address the housing need for renters with the lowest incomes.
This need can also be met through housing vouchers that subsidize the rent of more expensive units, bringing their prices down to that level. There are currently 1,100 households in Howard County receiving such subsidies, but there were 3,500 more eligible households on the waiting list for them as of 2024.
Goals and Strategies
Although the primary goal of The Path Toward Zero is to achieve functional zero homelessness in Howard County within 5 years, the program also seeks to meet several intermediary goals to ensure it’s on the right track.
One of these goals is to build collective power through advocacy and awareness. To achieve this, the coalition will develop public education campaigns to promote understanding and destigmatize housing instability and homelessness. They will also seek to engage the broader community and empower them with knowledge of the supports and resources available to those in need. This process will also involve developing relationships with existing and prospective landlord allies as well as educating housing developers on misconceptions and opportunities to lend their support.
Another intermediary goal of the program is to encourage collaboration and communication across existing systems. This will involve developing protocols for clear and consistent data communication, creating more opportunities for providers to get to know each other and work together, and regularly identifying opportunities to welcome new partners into the system and connect them with existing organizations.
The third subgoal of The Path Toward Zero is to implement system improvements frequently as they work toward functional zero. The coalition would like to improve the coordinated entry and assessment process to be more research-based and responsive to community needs, and to evaluate the current prioritization process and consider additional entry points to the system.
They will also be taking another look at the current assessment and prioritization processes for Permanent Supportive Housing to better tailor it to current needs, provide comprehensive support to households before they enter the Homeless Crisis Response, and improve data quality to standardize system-wide processes so progress can be accurately measured.
Finally, The Path Toward Zero plan will evaluate and expand the current portfolio of homelessness and housing interventions by focusing street outreach programs on housing first best practices, integrating support for victims and youth into the homeless system response, determine current need and potential for scaling up resources to achieve functional zero, and fine-tuning the “move on” strategy that transitions people out of Permanent Supportive Housing once they no longer need as much support.