Radical Redesign of Homelessness Services
The current system for addressing homelessness in the US is broken, with cities spending more on services each year yet seeing a rise in homelessness and growing public frustration.
The issue may be that the system is trying to solve too many problems at once, without being effective in solving any of them well.
A thought experiment, based on work at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) with state and city leaders, explores what it would take to radically redesign the way communities serve people with severe mental illness living on the street.
There are precedents from communities across the country that can provide helpful and illuminating insights into reimagining complex systems.
What if we’re trying to solve too many problems at once with a system built to solve none of them well?
Author's Summary
Radical redesign of homelessness services is needed to address the broken system.