.jpg)
Cities With Successful Homeless Programs That Work
Cherry Willow Apparel Editorial Team · Published August 19, 2026 · Sourced from HUD, Built for Zero, and Route Fifty
A handful of U.S. cities, and one entire state, have built successful homeless programs that actually move people into permanent housing instead of just managing a crisis. New Jersey reached functional zero for veteran homelessness in July 2026. Bakersfield, California cut its chronically homeless population from 72 people to 2. Chattanooga, Tennessee did the same for veterans across an eleven-county region. None of it happened by accident. Each result traces back to the same handful of ingredients: a real-time list of every person by name, one shared definition of the problem, and enough coordination that no one falls through the cracks between agencies.
What "Successful" Actually Means Here
In this space, "successful" has a specific, checkable meaning: functional zero. A community reaches functional zero for a population, like veterans or people experiencing chronic homelessness, when its homeless response system can house people about as fast as new cases come in. That makes homelessness for that group rare, brief, and non-recurring, rather than an ongoing emergency. The certifying body for most of these milestones is Built for Zero, a national network of more than 100 U.S. regions run by the nonprofit Community Solutions.
The one thing functional zero does not mean is that no one in that community will ever become homeless again. It means the system is fast enough to catch that person and get them housed before their homelessness becomes long-term. Keep that distinction in mind. It matters most in the Philadelphia section below.
New Jersey: A Statewide Win for Veterans
In the summer of 2026, New Jersey became one of the only U.S. states to reach functional zero for veteran homelessness statewide, not just in a single city. The state's Department of Community Affairs set the goal in March 2025 and hit it by connecting more than 2,500 veterans to stable housing through its Bringing Veterans Home initiative, backed by roughly $30 million in state and federal funding. Six regional hubs coordinated the work, using a shared case-management platform so a veteran identified in one county didn't get lost moving to services in another. Staff worked to a 24-hour first-contact standard and a 96-hour housing action plan for every veteran on the list.
DCA project director Jaclynn Trakalo described the shift in approach as learning to "organize ourselves around the outcome and deploy our resources" instead of working case by case in isolated silos, according to Route Fifty's August 2026 coverage of the milestone.
Bakersfield and Kern County: From 72 to 2
Bakersfield became the first community in California to reach functional zero for chronic homelessness, hitting the milestone at the start of 2020 after reducing its chronically homeless count from 72 people in 2015 to 2. The turning point wasn't a new building or a new pot of money. It was getting every agency working from the same by-name list and the same definition of "chronic homelessness," so a person didn't get counted, and served, differently depending on which door they walked through. Case managers followed people personally through the process instead of handing them off between programs.
Sources: Next City and Community Solutions' Bakersfield case study.
Chattanooga: Eleven Counties, One List
Chattanooga's regional homeless response covers 47 cities across 11 Tennessee counties, roughly 700,000 people. In October 2019 it became the 11th community in the country to reach functional zero for veteran homelessness, sustaining fewer than 7 veterans experiencing homelessness at any given time across the entire region. Ten separate agencies had to agree to work off one real-time, by-name list instead of ten different rosters. The team also hired a dedicated navigator to walk individual veterans through the housing process, which cut the time between identifying someone and getting them housed.
"We were able to knock down the length of time to access and house these people," team lead Emma Beers told Built for Zero at the time.
Philadelphia: Proof That Success Has to Be Maintained
Philadelphia reached functional zero for veteran homelessness in 2015, one of the first cities in the country to do so, and has maintained it through 2024 according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The city, the VA, and local nonprofits including Project HOME formed the Philly Vets Home Collaborative in 2013, setting 100-day housing targets and meeting weekly to clear whatever was blocking a specific veteran's case that week.
Nearly a decade in, Philadelphia is also the clearest reminder of what functional zero doesn't promise. A 2021 Philadelphia Inquirer piece asked, fairly, why veterans were still visible on the street years after the city's milestone made headlines, and the Philadelphia Citizen covered the same tension. The honest answer is that functional zero describes a system's speed, not a permanent absence of need. Every veteran who becomes homeless in Philadelphia today is still someone, not a statistic the city gets to stop seeing, and the same by-name list built in 2013 is what's supposed to find that person quickly.
What These Programs Have in Common
Strip away the geography and the same pattern shows up in New Jersey, Bakersfield, Chattanooga, and Philadelphia alike, and it's the same pattern behind Houston, Milwaukee County, Rockford, and Abilene's results, covered in more depth in our deeper look at cities reducing homelessness:
- Housing First, not shelter-only: permanent housing is the goal from day one, with services layered on afterward rather than required as a precondition. See our explainer on how Housing First actually works.
- One real-time, by-name list per population: every agency works off the same roster instead of separate spreadsheets that never reconcile.
- A shared definition of the problem: Bakersfield's breakthrough hinged on agreeing what "chronic homelessness" even meant before trying to solve it.
- Regular, often weekly, cross-agency coordination: Philadelphia and Chattanooga both built recurring meetings specifically to unstick individual cases.
- Sustained funding and political will: the one ingredient that's hardest to bank on, and the one Houston's 2025 uptick shows what happens when it slips.
| Region | Population focus | Year reached | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey (statewide) | Veterans | 2026 | Functional zero |
| Bakersfield & Kern County, CA | Chronic homelessness | 2020 | Functional zero |
| Chattanooga region, TN | Veterans | 2019 | Functional zero |
| Philadelphia, PA | Veterans | 2015 | Maintained 9+ years |
Sources: Built for Zero, Route Fifty, and HUD's 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
How You Can Help Bring This Home
None of these results came from a clever system alone. They came from communities that decided, together, that this was solvable, and then funded and staffed that decision year after year. That's the same belief Cherry Willow Apparel was built on: everyone experiencing homelessness has inherent dignity and deserves to be seen, valued, and housed, not managed as a statistic from a distance. Supporting the organizations doing this by-name, case-by-case work in your own community is how a Chattanooga or a Bakersfield happens somewhere else next.
Wear the mission. Fund the work.
Every Cherry Willow purchase helps fund partner organizations doing this exact kind of coordinated, on-the-ground housing work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "functional zero" mean for homelessness?
Functional zero means a community's homeless response system can house people about as fast as new cases occur, so homelessness for that group becomes rare, brief, and non-recurring. It does not mean literally no one in that community will ever experience homelessness again. Built for Zero, the national network behind the term, certifies functional zero using a real-time, by-name count of everyone in that population.
Which cities have successful homeless programs right now?
New Jersey reached functional zero for veteran homelessness statewide in 2026, Chattanooga's eleven-county region reached it for veterans in 2019, Bakersfield and Kern County, California reached it for chronic homelessness in 2020, and Philadelphia has maintained veteran functional zero since 2015. Houston, Milwaukee County, Rockford, and Abilene have their own strong results too.
Has any U.S. city completely ended homelessness?
No city has ended homelessness in the sense of guaranteeing no one there will ever become homeless again. What several cities and one state have done is build systems fast and coordinated enough that homelessness for a specific group, like veterans or people experiencing chronic homelessness, becomes rare and quickly resolved instead of an ongoing crisis.
What is the Built for Zero movement?
Built for Zero is a national network of more than 100 U.S. communities, run by the nonprofit Community Solutions, that uses real-time by-name lists and shared data to drive homelessness down to functional zero for specific populations. It has certified functional zero milestones in communities including Bakersfield and Chattanooga.
Why did homelessness rise again in a city like Houston that had reached functional zero for veterans?
Functional zero describes how fast a system can respond, not a permanent guarantee, so it can slip when funding or shelter capacity drops. Houston's overall homeless count ticked up in 2025 after federal COVID-era relief funding ended and shelter beds grew scarcer, which shows that even strong programs need sustained investment to hold their gains.
How can I help support successful homeless programs in my community?
You can donate directly to local outreach and housing organizations, volunteer with a coordinated entry or by-name list effort in your area, and support brands and nonprofits that fund permanent housing work. Cherry Willow Apparel channels a portion of every purchase toward partner organizations doing this work on the ground.
Sources: HUD 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, Built for Zero / Community Solutions, Route Fifty, Next City, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Citizen. Figures reflect the most recent data available as of publication (August 2026) and will shift as new counts and reports are released.
↑ Back to top
.jpg)