DENVER — A national effort to prevent homelessness by providing flexible financial assistance and support services is launching in Denver and Adams counties after promising results in Silicon Valley.
Destination: Home, a public-private partnership founded in 2010 in California, tested a homelessness-prevention pilot beginning in 2017. With the help of researchers at The University of Notre Dame, they found the program kept more than 90% of participants housed two years after receiving help.
“We know that if you’re really going to end homelessness, it’s not just housing those people that are outside,” Destination: Home Chief Operating Officer Ray Bramson said. “But, thinking about those families and individuals that are one paycheck away.”
The new initiative, called Right at Home, will try to replicate that model in 10 communities nationwide. Destination: Home will not open local offices, Bramson said, but will fund local partners and provide technical and research assistance. Organizers awarded Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) a planning grant and will provide an initial $5 million over five years to launch the program in the Denver and Adams County.
Right at Home focuses on meeting people “in their moment of crisis” before they lose housing. They could, for example, help with rent payments, emergency car repairs that prevent someone from getting to work, child-care gaps and moves from unsafe homes. Support is tailored to each individual client, who are assigned case managers who connect them to legal services, job training, education and other resources.
Jennifer Meyers, director of external affairs for MDHI, said the region is seeing rising homelessness driven by the national affordability crisis, and welcomes Right at Home as a potential solution.
“The data shows that this works, and it helps get people back on their feet, and it helps people be self-sustaining again,” Meyers said. “To be able to help prevent people who are on the brink of homeless from entering that is really meaningful work.”
Funding for the national rollout comes from philanthropic partners, including an early grant from Cisco and a major award from The Audacious Project at TED. Bramson said Destination: Home has raised about $77 million so far to support expansion.
“This isn’t charity,” Bramson said. “It’s a bridge to make sure that we can get people back to that stable state that they had held onto for a long time."
