COMMON GROUND

Common Ground is an international leader in the development of solutions to homelessness.

Founded by MacArthur and Ashoka Fellow Rosanne Haggerty in 1990, Common Ground is a pioneer in the development of supportive housing and other research-based practices that end homelessness. Common Ground’s network of well designed, affordable apartments — linked to the services people need to maintain their housing, restore their health, and regain their economic independence — has enabled more than 4,000 individuals to overcome homelessness.

Common Ground’s strategy has three components:

• Affordable Housing. We build and operate a range of housing options for homeless and low-income individuals and families – housing that is attractive, affordable, well managed, and linked to the services and support people need to rebuild their lives.
   
• Outreach. We identify and house the most vulnerable: those who have been homeless the longest, have the most disabling conditions, and are least likely to access housing resources. These individuals typically spend years cycling between emergency shelters, hospitals, and jails.
   
• Prevention. We strengthen communities and prevent homelessness by addressing the multiple factors that cause individuals and families to become homeless.

COMMON GROUND Accomplishments

• Common Ground has created more than 2,000 units of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York. With the goal of creating 4,000 additional units of housing for the homeless by 2015, we are currently developing eight properties, comprising 1,375 units.
   
• Our housing costs approximately $36 per night to operate – significantly less than public expenditures: $54 for a city shelter bed, $74 for a state prison cell, $164 for a city jail cell, $467 for a psychiatric bed, $1,185 for a hospital bed.
   
• Our ground-breaking Street to Home program reduced street homelessness by 87% in the 20-block Times Square neighborhood, and by 43% in the surrounding 230 blocks of West Midtown. Spearheading a citywide strategy, Common Ground is now responsible for securing homes for people living on the streets in all of Brooklyn, Queens, and midtown Manhattan.
   
• As creator and lead partner of the Brownsville Partnership, we address the causes of homelessness and upheaval in families. Brownsville, in East Brooklyn, has one of New York City’s highest rates of homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, and child welfare involvement. In partnership with service providers, government agencies, landlords, businesses, and community residents, we are working to change the social and economic forces that undermine stability and health, and produce homelessness.