To facilitate engagement, alignment and collaborative opportunities the Alliance has established a series of ongoing opportunities for a broad range of stakeholders to engage and contribute to implementing the 10-Year WA Strategy to End Homelessness.
To facilitate engagement, alignment and collaborative opportunities the Alliance has established a series of ongoing opportunities for a broad range of stakeholders to engage and contribute to implementing the 10-Year WA Strategy to End Homelessness.
The Strategy | Click the Document
The Strategy | Click the Document
Co-Design Resources
Advance to Zero
Ending Street Homelessness in Communities Around WA
Advance to Zero, as it is known in Australia, is derived from the ‘Built for Zero’ approach, born out of the United States. It is a rigorous international change effort working to help a core group of committed communities end homelessness.
Developed and driven by Community Solutions, this international effort guides participants in developing real time data on homelessness, optimising local housing and support resources and tracking progress against monthly goals.
How does it work?
Advance to Zero, or ‘Built for Zero’ as it’s known in USA, is an approach to achieving ‘functional zero’ for those experiencing homelessnesss in a city or town area using a combination of quality real-time data and service coordination. One of the key tools used in this approach is the ‘By-Name List’. People and organisations working with people experiencing homelessness come together to use the list to analyse what is working and to adapt the service responses to get better outcomes.
The list collects inflow and outflow data (see diagram below) to show month-by-month data about how many people are actively homeless in a community, whether this is reducing or not (Inflow), and how many people are moving out of homelessness (Outflow) each month.
Six Key Data Points
Getting to Proof Points: Key learning from the first three years of the 'Built for Zero' initiative. A Report by Community Solutions.
The list records their status including whether they are rough sleeping or in accommodation. It tracks their movements into and out of homelessness. It also includes some basic information about whether someone has a lead worker (if available).
The WA Context
In early 2019, the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness brought key representatives from capital cities around Australia to co-invest in learning about, and developing, the ‘Advance to Zero’ approach (read more about the national campaign here).
Representatives from Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane all participated in a 2-Day Action Lab in Perth in February 2019. Since then, the Perth Interagency Team have been working hard to develop the relationships, policies, procedures, and know-how to implement an ‘Advance to Zero’ approach in WA.
Previously Ruah Community Services were the backbone support to the Advance to Zero approach, however since Dec 22 this has been transitioned over to the WAAEH in WA through the By Name List Dash Board. This is partially funded through the WA State Government’s Housing First Homeless initiative, previously additional funding from Lotterywest resourced the By-Name List and the roll out of Housing First training for the sector. The State Government is also providing new funding to support people in their housing (Housing First Support Service).
The WAAEH and Advance to Zero have rolled out the Advance to Zero approach in WA, with the Alliance taking the lead at a strategic level and the Advance to Zero team providing support and a backbone resource on the day to day level. The Advance to Zero team manages the By-Name List – a tool that enables organisations from across the sector to collaboratively track and quantify homelessness, so local communities have access to real time data. This information will drive evidence-based improvements to help reduce rough sleeping and chronic homelessness. The By-Name List is the key tool for working collaboratively to address housing and support needs for people experiencing homelessness check the By Name List Dash Board.
Read more about other communities around the world who have succeeded with this approach.
- Three U.S. cities have ended homelessness. This is they did it.
Further Information
A Global Movement