Abstract
The Adelaide Zero Project
The goal of the Adelaide Zero Project is to achieve and sustain Functional Zero street homelessness in Adelaide’s inner city by the end of 2020, subsequently expanding the project model to other areas of South Australia, and to other forms of homelessness.
The Adelaide Zero Project seeks to achieve its ambitious goal by using the Functional Zero approach successfully pioneered in the US. Functional Zero is a person-centred and data-driven approach, which, to date, has seen seven communities achieve Functional Zero for veterans’ homelessness, and four communities functionally end chronic homelessness, as part of a national end homelessness campaign known as ‘Built for Zero’.
The Functional Zero approach starts with knowing the names and needs of every homeless person (people sleeping rough in the Adelaide case) then working to ensure that the homelessness support system places more people into secure housing than are entering the system in a given month. As a Housing First (but not housing only) model placing people into secure housing requires aligning housing to support needs to ensure people moving on from homelessness can access and sustain an appropriate and safe place to call home.
The Functional Zero approach has been particularly successful in the US in achieving buy-in from the community and industry, the philanthropic, government, non-government and university sectors, principally because the model is founded on shared direction, ownership and testing of actions to end homelessness.
Adelaide is the first city outside North America to commit to using the Functional Zero approach. It has been recognised by the Institute for Global Homelessness in a network of Vanguard Cities globally since November 2017, leading the way in tackling street homelessness.
The Adelaide Zero Project is underpinned by a solid foundational architecture developed by review of the evidence base used in end homelessness campaigns, with a clear set of actions and structures in place and driven by numerous lead agencies in order to achieve the project’s shared goal. It is backboned by an independent thought-leadership organisation, the Don Dunstan Foundation. Further information about the project is available on the Don Dunstan Foundation website.
The goal of the Adelaide Zero Project is to achieve and sustain Functional Zero street homelessness in Adelaide’s inner city by the end of 2020, subsequently expanding the project model to other areas of South Australia, and to other forms of homelessness.
The Adelaide Zero Project seeks to achieve its ambitious goal by using the Functional Zero approach successfully pioneered in the US. Functional Zero is a person-centred and data-driven approach, which, to date, has seen seven communities achieve Functional Zero for veterans’ homelessness, and four communities functionally end chronic homelessness, as part of a national end homelessness campaign known as ‘Built for Zero’.
The Functional Zero approach starts with knowing the names and needs of every homeless person (people sleeping rough in the Adelaide case) then working to ensure that the homelessness support system places more people into secure housing than are entering the system in a given month. As a Housing First (but not housing only) model placing people into secure housing requires aligning housing to support needs to ensure people moving on from homelessness can access and sustain an appropriate and safe place to call home.
The Functional Zero approach has been particularly successful in the US in achieving buy-in from the community and industry, the philanthropic, government, non-government and university sectors, principally because the model is founded on shared direction, ownership and testing of actions to end homelessness.
Adelaide is the first city outside North America to commit to using the Functional Zero approach. It has been recognised by the Institute for Global Homelessness in a network of Vanguard Cities globally since November 2017, leading the way in tackling street homelessness.
The Adelaide Zero Project is underpinned by a solid foundational architecture developed by review of the evidence base used in end homelessness campaigns, with a clear set of actions and structures in place and driven by numerous lead agencies in order to achieve the project’s shared goal. It is backboned by an independent thought-leadership organisation, the Don Dunstan Foundation. Further information about the project is available on the Don Dunstan Foundation website.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Don Dunstan Foundation |
| Commissioning body | Aligned Housing Working Group |
| Number of pages | 53 |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aligned Housing Research Project
- Homelessness
- Adelaide Zero Project
- AnglicareSA
