What kind of issues will policymakers face whilst importing built for zero?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Key stakeholders across the Global North are experimenting with data policies and practices to efficiently end homelessness. Built for Zero is an approach created in the USA that uses complete and timely data to make homeless systems pliable to fluid population dynamics. Community Solutions is nongovernmental organization from the USA that created Built for Zero. Advocate groups in Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, and France are now importing this methodology to homeless systems in their country. Importing Built for Zero is complicated because it was designed for US homeless systems. As a result, its key components are tailored to social, economic, and political conditions that are unique to that country. To date, housing analysts have only started to evaluate the implementation and impact of Built for Zero. Within that small literature, no one has considered issues that policymakers outside of the USA will face whilst trying to import Built for Zero. This paper starts that conversation by analyzing problems that English councils adopting this approach will likely confront. The author identifies key components of Built for Zero that must be adapted to UK homeless statutes and poses questions for policymakers in other countries to answer whilst they import Built for Zero.