OHY is partnering with Community Solutions to integrate Washington state into the Built for Zero movement. Community Solutions originated the functional zero model and currently supports a network of over 100 international cities and counties pursuing functional zero for various homeless subpopulations including veterans, the chronically homeless, and youth.
Communities for Functional Zero is a statewide collaborative of communities committed to ending youth and young adult homelessness through the functional zero framework. This model is an established set of benchmarks used to determine if communities have effectively ended homelessness which include ensuring:
- Homelessness is rare, brief, and one-time
- The community is operating with a full accounting of homelessness at all times
- The community is working toward equitable systems, starting with a focus on race and ethnicity
- All of these achievements are sustained over time, even as local conditions change
About the program
Launched in 2018, initially as the Anchor Communities Initiative (ACI), this effort was grounded in the proven principles of functional zero and co-led by OHY and A Way Home Washington (AWHWA). Since AWHWA’s closing in 2024, ACI grantees self-organized to form this coalition, private funders pledged support, and OHY continued service grants in the nine identified communities (Clallam/Jefferson, Clark, Whatcom, Skagit, Thurston, Spokane, Pierce, Walla Walla and Yakima counties). OHY has also begun building capacity to directly provide coaching and support in sustaining and growing functional zero throughout Washington’s youth homelessness services.