DignityMoves is dedicated to finding innovative ways to bring people indoors and off of our streets in rapid and cost-effective ways that are therefore scalable. After our first full year of operations and building over 165 rooms with hundreds more in development, we have come to understand that the housing itself is only a small aspect of the value we are bringing to the homelessness situation. Perhaps even more valuable is the renewed sense of optimism we’re inspiring.
People seem to have given up hope that the homelessness crisis can be solved. We are changing that! We are demonstrating that we CAN get roofs over people’s heads. We just need to attack this problem with new thinking, innovation, and determination.
A growing and increasingly entrenched homelessness problem in the state of California has fueled a related, collective sense of complacency at all levels, from government down through nonprofits, neighborhoods, and individuals. Despite many programs, billions in spending, and a herculean effort to build permanent supportive housing, the number of homeless individuals in the state has ballooned. DignityMoves has not been content to accept the status quo, instead emerging as complacency busters who demonstrate through action that this crisis can not only be mitigated, but solved.
We are bringing our disruptive thinking to stale systems. We are asking hard questions, challenging the status quo, and shaking things up in a big way. We serve as a bridge that spans the best of for-profit and nonprofit worlds. We combine the can-do attitude of the corporate world with the social-benefit heart of the nonprofit sector. We take a leadership role that helps unite partners from widely divergent sectors. As a relative newcomer and outsider with bold ideas, our presence has shaken up the status quo.
Demonstrating this model to cities: Construction of the San Francisco “pilot’ was fully funded by philanthropy as a pilot to demonstrate to the city; its now taken hold and San Francisco is replicating. We have adopted an innovative model that blends private and public funding together, allowing us to fill gaps in funding with unrestricted funding, rapid-response funding, and funds that can be put to work immediately, while institutional and government funding are pending.
Did You Know ?
San Francisco is now planning a second cabin community just like 33 Gough.
Rafael Mandelman announced A Place for All on the front steps of 33 Gough just a few weeks after our grand opening.
Our National Replication program is working to empower communities far and wide to build DignityMoves type communities. Because we have demonstrated that our model works in several successful locations, we can bring this model to locations outside of the state of California. This model provides a winning formula that can empower communities across the country to replicate these successes where they are located.
We operate in the spirit of openness and collaboration. We want to disseminate our learning and methods far and wide and do so through meetings, blogs, white papers, our social media, and in direct consultation with government agencies and interested organizations.