Episode 16: Building Hope - How Built for Zero and Community Solutions are Leading the Fight to End Homelessness

In this episode of Collaborative Solutions, host Barry Feaker and Misty Bosch-Hastings welcome Melanie Lewis Dickerson, Director of Large-Scale Change at Community Solutions, to explore the groundbreaking Built for Zero initiative. Melanie shares how Community Solutions is leading a national and global effort to make homelessness rare and brief by uniting communities around data-driven strategies and compassionate collaboration.

She explains how Built for Zero empowers communities like Lawrence, Kansas, to track real-time data through tools like the by-name list, ensuring that no one falls through the cracks. Melanie’s message is one of hope and possibility—homelessness can be solved, and when communities work together with shared purpose, real change is possible. Her inspiring vision shows that with commitment and collaboration, we can make homelessness a thing of the past.