An internationally recognized leader in developing innovative strategies to end homelessness and strengthen communities Rosanne Haggerty joins Matt on this week’s Leading Voices in Real Estate. As President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions, Rosanne oversees a nonprofit that assists cEmmunities throughout the U.S. and internationally in solving the complex housing problems facing their most vulnerable residents. Community Solutions also leads “Built for Zero”, a movement of more than 90 cities and counties using data to radically change how they work and make homelessness rare. As a 2001 MacArthur Genius, Rosanne broadened her work in this space after spending decades working in supportive housing. She formally established Community Solutions in 2011, and in 2021 The MacArthur Foundation provided an additional $100M grant to further develop her methodology. While homelessness is a step removed from our typical Leading Voices conversations, this discussion provides a perspective on a societal issue that ripples across real estate and how our industry can address homelessness.

Rosanne was a Japan Society Public Policy Fellow, and is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Ashoka Senior Fellow, Hunt Alternative Fund Prime Mover and the recipient of honors including the Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism from the Rockefeller Foundation, Social Entrepreneur of the year from the Schwab Foundation, Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award and Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Resources

• “Homelessness is Solvable” – Rosanne’s podcast interview with Malcolm Gladwell (June 2019)