We're Going To Assist 150 Cities to End Street Homelessness by 2030. Here's how.

The Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) launched in 2014 with one aim – to strengthen and support the global movement to end homelessness worldwide. We asked our international colleagues what would help most, and the feedback we heard became our to-do list:

1. Cultivate and support strong leaders.

2. Make it easy to access the best information about how to solve the problem.

3. Develop common language and tools to evaluate homelessness across countries.

4. Advocate at the global level, ensuring homelessness is a priority so this work outlasts our own careers and organizations.

With your help, in each of these areas we’ve achieved important things.

In 2015 we engaged the finest internationally known researchers and integrated perspectives from thirty countries to finalize the IGH Framework on Homelessness. The Framework offers the first common language to evaluate homelessness across regions and national borders. It has already helped IGH sharpen our focus to individuals living on the street, those people experiencing unsheltered homelessness or housed short-term in temporary crisis shelters. IGH’s 2015 Homelessness in a Global Landscape was the first truly global conference on homelessness.

The IGH Leadership Program, launched in April 2016, convened dynamic leaders from eight countries across five continents and equipped them with new tools to define ambitious goals and strategize about locally appropriate measures to alleviate homelessness in their own communities. In partnership with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, IGH plans to launch an online global research hub in 2017.

We are proud of this work. And the energy, talent, and sheer will of the people we have met have convinced us that together, we can do something even bigger.

That’s why today, we are making a commitment to assist 150 cities worldwide in ending street homelessness by 2030.

This deadline aligns with existing global targets, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To meet it, we will continue to build the program areas above, using them to focus on what really matters. We believe cultivating leaders, exchanging knowledge, creating a global infrastructure and advocating for change are the right building blocks for a global movement to end street homelessness. We look forward to continuing to partner with you to advance the important work we have started together.

In the coming months we will provide regular updates and seek your input. In the meantime, you can find more information below on the approach we will take, and the intermediate objectives we will measure, to achieve our 2030 goal.

Thank you for convincing us it is possible to end street homelessness. And thank you for your commitment to engage in this work together.

An End to Street Homelessness in 150 Cities by 2030: Timeline

To truly and sustainably end street homelessness in 150 cities by 2030, we must set aggressive objectives along the way. IGH has borrowed strategies from the public health and quality improvement sectors to develop a rigorous timeline with room for testing, learning, and disseminating information about what works. The fourteen-year effort will have three phases: prototype, pilot, and scale. In the first phase, we will succeed in six cities. In the second, we will succeed in 25. Finally, we will scale to another 120 cities to succeed in ending street homelessness in a total of at least 150 cities by 2030.

1. By 2020: Prototype and prove in 6 cities

• Goal: With a small group of committed cities, learn what works in different contexts and create proof points that motivate and inspire.

• Number of cities that will end street homelessness: At least six.

• Overview: IGH will work with twelve cities, two on each continent, with the goal of succeeding in at least six. We will tailor our support to the needs of these cities, testing hypotheses about what approaches work in which contexts and learning our way into the next phase. Along the way, we will demonstrate that this goal is possible – putting to rest the idea that “ending homelessness” is impossible, and only achievable as an abstract concept.

2. By 2025: Pilot and expand in 25 cities

• Goal: Apply learning from the prototype phase to an expanded group of cities to confirm what works, setting a foundation for moving to scale.

• Number of cities that will end street homelessness: At least 25.

• Overview: IGH will work with a broader group of cities, applying the interventions that worked during the first phase to ensure they are transferable to other contexts. This will allow us to move toward the final “scale and finish” phase with confidence.

3. By 2030: Scale and finish in 120 cities

• Goal: Support a well functioning network of cities to tailor and implement well-tested interventions, bringing what we’ve learned globally to full scale.

• Number of cities that will end street homelessness: At least 120

• Overview: IGH will support a well functioning network of cities adapting and applying well-tested interventions to end street homelessness on an unprecedented scale, achieving the 2030 goal.

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