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In 2024, homelessness surged by 18% nationwide, with 23 out of every 10,000 people living on the streets or in shelters. The costs of homelessness are enormous – not just to the health and well-being of those experiencing it, but also to taxpayers, as governments spend billions on housing and services. But there’s a smarter solution: prevention.

Santa Clara County, California, has proven it works. By helping at-risk residents stay housed — 93% remained in their homes two years later — the county kept families stable and saved taxpayers money. Every $1 spent on prevention returned $2.47 in public benefits.

“More people are becoming homeless every single day, every single year, than we can house and we can ever think to house,” says Chad Bojorquez, Chief Program Officer at Destination: Home, who leads its homelessness prevention system. “If we don't turn off what we call inflow, if we don't turn off that spigot, we're never going to solve homelessness.”

We'll also hear from Brendan Perry of Notre Dame's Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and Ross Tilchin, director of the economic mobility catalog at Results for America.

Listen to the episode below and subscribe to the Next City podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods. Or check out the full webinar here.

This post was originally published on Next City.