The Bay Area can solve homelessness. We're doing the work.
Beyond Homeless connects decades of research and field evidence with the organizations, leaders, and capital needed to make it real - right here in the Bay Area.
200+
Stakeholders Engaged
3
Active Collaboratives
5
Bay Area Cities
80%
Homelessness decline at Haven for Hope, San Antonio - our inspiration
Homeless. Not Hopeless.
The people on our streets have not run out of potential. The Bay Area has not run out of solutions. What it needs is coordination.
The backbone the Bay Area has been missing
Beyond Homeless operates as the connective tissue across a fragmented ecosystem, bringing together stakeholders who were previously working in isolation, aligning them behind shared goals, and driving specific initiatives to completion.
Inspired by Haven for Hope in San Antonio, which achieved an 80% decline in unsheltered downtown homelessness, we are translating that proven model for the Bay Area context.
Our Dual Operating Model
Convening Network
Building relationships, sharing knowledge, and aligning Bay Area leaders on regional priorities.
Coordination Backbone
Driving specific initiatives from concept to completion, managing timelines and accountability.
Three Collaboratives · 2026
Where we are focused
Campus Hub Development
Moving large-scale campuses from concept to reality. Golden Gateway at Holy Names University in Oakland is our flagship project.
Stage 2: Feasibility underway
Policy and Funding Reform
Building a coalition to create political cover for comprehensive homelessness policy reform at city, county, and state levels.
15 of 50 organizations committed
Innovation Collaborative
Shared data infrastructure and new funding models. A real-time platform connecting services across Bay Area cities, with a DAF voucher pilot to unlock philanthropic capital.
San Jose pilot active · DAF voucher in development
Beyond Homeless - Documentary One
Our award-winning documentary follows the search for what actually works in addressing homelessness. It has screened for tens of thousands of people worldwide.
Documenting the formation of the Bay Area Collaborative - the delegation to Texas, the leaders who showed up, and the work now underway to build the region's first campus hub.
Festival Recognition - Finding Hope
Anthem Film Festival
WorldFest Houston
Tiburon International
Accolade Global
Best Shorts
Nova Frontier Film
Big Apple Film
San Francisco Film
Stay updated on the collaborative
Monthly progress updates. No opinion pieces. No noise.
Our Network
Partner Organizations
Backbone and Leadership
Beyond HomelessBeyond Homeless
Independent InstituteIndependent Institute
All Home CAAll Home CA
Destination: HomeDestination: Home
CrankstartCrankstart Foundation
Bay Area CouncilBay Area Council
Philanthropy and Funding
SF FoundationSan Francisco Foundation
CZIChan Zuckerberg Initiative
GoogleGoogle
Hudson PacificHudson Pacific Properties
Miracle MessagesMiracle Messages
DECADECA
Nonprofit Partners
BACSBay Area Community Services
Felton InstituteFelton Institute
DignityMovesDignityMoves
Haven for HopeHaven for Hope
St. AnthonySt. Anthony Foundation
Pallet SheltersPallet Shelters
Neighbors TogetherNeighbors Together Oakland
Oakland ThrivesOakland Thrives
SF TravelSF Travel
SF ChamberSF Chamber of Commerce
MADDMothers Against Drug Deaths
AdvanceSFAdvance SF
Legal, Design and Professional
Hanson BridgettHanson Bridgett LLP
WestEd DesignWestEd Design Group
LISC Bay AreaLISC Bay Area
Oak ImpactOak Impact Group
Ground FloorGround Floor Public Affairs
Saris RegisSaris Regis Group
Government Partners
City of OaklandCity of Oakland
City of San JoseCity of San Jose
City of SFCity of San Francisco
BerkeleyCity of Berkeley
Marin CountyMarin County
CA Housing DeptCA Dept of Housing
Are you a Bay Area organization working on homelessness solutions?
Join the collaborative
We are bringing together Bay Area leaders across government, philanthropy, real estate, and civil society. If you are ready to be part of the solution, we want to hear from you.
Get Involved
Not a policy professional? You can still make a difference.
There are three simple ways to support this work - no expertise required.
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Stay Informed
One monthly update on what's happening and what's working. No noise.
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Give
Help fund feasibility studies on the Bay Area's first campus hub at Holy Names University.
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Spread the Word
Share with a developer, funder, or local leader who should know about this work.
3 Active Projects
Bay Area Network
About the Network
Who is in the network and why it matters
The Beyond Homeless Network is a curated group of Bay Area leaders who are actively working - or ready to work - on solutions to homelessness. It spans government, philanthropy, real estate, nonprofits, legal, healthcare, and the private sector. The network exists to make introductions that wouldn't otherwise happen, surface resources that are sitting idle, and connect the right people to the right projects at the right moment. Every member has been reviewed by the BH team. This is not a mailing list - it is a working group.
How it works
Find someone with what you need. Request an introduction. The BH team facilitates - contact details are never shared without consent from both parties.
Each project below is a live initiative in the network. See what is needed right now and get in touch if you can help.
Campus Hub Development Collaborative
From the Beyond Homeless documentary Finding Hope
Campus Hub Development Collaborative
Ready to get involved?
What is a Campus Hub?
Transformational housing built around the whole person
A campus hub is a model for transitional housing that goes beyond shelter. On a shared site - which can range from a single acre to a large repurposed campus - residents have access to the wraparound services that actually address the causes of homelessness: employment support, healthcare, mental health treatment, addiction recovery, and skills training, all in one place.
The model is inspired by Haven for Hope in San Antonio, which achieved an 80% decline in unsheltered downtown homelessness. Beyond Homeless is working with Bay Area partners to develop a version of this model suited to the specific needs, land constraints, and communities of this region.
This model is not tied to any single policy ideology and is not positioned against other approaches. It is being developed collaboratively - not imposed. The goal is simply to get people off the streets and into stable, supported lives.
COLLABORATIVE GOALS
200
Sites identified across Bay Area
20
Feasibility studies (target 2026)
5
In active acquisition (target)
1–3
Sites acquired by Dec 2026
2026 Goal
The Collaborative Campus
What we are building and why
The Bay Area has more than enough resources, organizations, and expertise to address homelessness at scale. What it has lacked is a shared physical infrastructure - a campus where services, housing pathways, and community support exist in one coordinated place.
Inspired by Haven for Hope in San Antonio - which achieved a 77% reduction in downtown homelessness - we are working with Bay Area partners to develop the region's first collaborative campus hub. The goal is not to replicate Haven exactly, but to apply its proven operating principles to the Bay Area context: scale, wraparound services, housing pathways, and genuine accountability for outcomes.
Our flagship site, Golden Gateway at Holy Names University in Oakland, is currently in Stage 2 feasibility. It represents the starting point - not the finish line.
What a campus hub provides
Transitional housing, behavioral health, employment support, legal aid, healthcare, and addiction recovery - all on one site, coordinated by one backbone, accountable to shared outcomes.
What makes ours different
This is not a top-down government project. It is being built collaboratively - by the organizations, funders, developers, and civic leaders who will run it. No single organization is in charge. Shared accountability is the model.
The scale we are working toward
2,000+ beds. Wraparound services. 60 acres. A $200M capital goal. A model that can be replicated across the Bay Area and beyond.
See individual project details, floor plans, and planning documents:
How it gets funded
Braided public and private capital
Large-scale campuses require funding structures that most public systems cannot provide alone. This collaborative is building a blended model that combines philanthropic acquisition capital with public operational funding — enabling speed, flexibility, and durability.
$20M
Philanthropic acquisition target for 2026
20+
Funders to be pitched with funding strategy
$10–40M
Estimated site acquisition range per campus
Public land pathway
Many sites can be secured via $1/year public leases — removing acquisition cost entirely and allowing philanthropic capital to fund development and operations instead.
Get Involved
There is a role for you here.
Government agencies, developers, nonprofits, philanthropists, and people with lived experience all have a role in building the Bay Area's first campus hub.
The goal is not a policy victory. The goal is functional zero unsheltered homelessness in the Bay Area. Policy is the lever that makes large-scale delivery possible — by unlocking funding, removing barriers to site activation, and giving elected officials the political cover they need to act.
2026 is an election year — which makes timing critical. This collaborative is building a 50+ organisation coalition to speak with a unified voice on specific priorities during a window when legislative and ballot action is actually possible. The more organizations aligned behind a reform, the safer it becomes for decision-makers to support it.
Joining the coalition means committing to endorse at least one policy priority, participating in at least one convening per quarter, and lending your organization's name and relationships to shared advocacy. In return, members get early access to research, facilitated introductions, and a seat at the table when policy decisions are being made.
Policy work here is evaluated by one metric: does it accelerate delivery on the ground? Position papers and process without outcomes are not the goal. This collaborative is measured by what passes and what gets built.
The evidence base behind these policy positions - spending data, outcome comparisons, national benchmarks - is on the Data page.
2026 Goals
01
Expand funding for interim and rapid housing models through legislation
Align stakeholders on election-year legislation and ballot measures during 2026
04
Build coordinated advocacy across government, philanthropy, nonprofits, business, and lived experience
05
Advance at least three specific legislative, regulatory, or funding actions that unlock delivery
06
Build broad stakeholder alignment around a clear path to functional zero unsheltered homelessness
Working across the collaborative
Policy change is only meaningful when it unlocks real delivery. This collaborative works hand in hand with the other two workstreams.
Campus Hub Collaborative
Policy reforms unlock site acquisition and campus development
View →
Innovation Collaborative
Shared data and reporting infrastructure supports legislative accountability
View →
Policy Priorities
County Interim Housing Fund
In Review
A dedicated county-level funding mechanism for interim housing, providing stable multi-year capital for campus development.
Supporting: 8 organizations
State Campus Activation Program
Draft
State legislation enabling fast-track conversion of surplus public land and closed institutional campuses for interim and permanent supportive housing.
Supporting: 5 organizations
Regional Coordinated Entry Reform
Draft
Creating a single regional intake point across Bay Area counties to reduce duplication and improve service matching.
Supporting: 4 organizations
Whether you represent an organisation or want to stay informed as an individual, joining the network connects you to the coalition's work as it happens.
Legislative Timeline
Success is measured by what passes and what unlocks delivery — not position papers. 2026 targets: 2–3 formal recommendations submitted, language included in at least 1 piece of legislation, 50+ decision-makers reached.
Mar 2026
Coalition Launch Announcement
Public announcement of 15-org founding coalition with media outreach.
Apr 2026
County Supervisor Briefings
Interim Housing Fund proposal to Alameda and Santa Clara supervisors.
May 2026
State Legislature Testimony
Assembly Housing Committee hearing on Campus Activation Program.
Jul 2026
Collaborative Milestone: 35 Orgs
Interim report with sector analysis and momentum update.
Oct 2026
Beyond Homeless Annual Summit
Full collaborative convening with keynotes and project showcases. Target: 300+ attendees.
Dec 2026
Pilot Funding Mechanism Live
At least one county funding mechanism launched and operational.
Get Involved
There is a role for you here.
Whether you represent an organisation or want to stay informed as an individual, joining connects you to the coalition's work as it happens.
Innovation Collaborative
From the Beyond Homeless documentary Finding Hope
Innovation Collaborative
System Platform · Innovative Financing · Technology & AI
Ready to get involved?
About This Collaborative
The connective tissue that makes everything else work
The Innovation Collaborative exists to modernise how the homelessness ecosystem collaborates — making it easier for organisations, capital, and civic leaders to engage and see results. It provides the shared infrastructure that enables all the other collaboratives to succeed.
It works across three workstreams: a shared system platform so every stakeholder can see the whole picture, innovative financing mechanisms to unlock private capital sitting on the sidelines, and technology and AI to increase the capacity of a system constrained by workforce shortages and administrative overload.
This collaborative does not deliver services or develop facilities. Its mandate is coordination, visibility, and unlocking new resources. If that is your kind of work — in technology, data, finance, or systems — this is where you belong.
2026 Goals
01
Deploy a jurisdiction-wide homelessness system platform in one pilot city or county
02
Achieve majority participation from projects and key stakeholders in that jurisdiction
03
Create high-level capacity and pipeline visibility across housing and service types
04
Build a repeatable methodology that can be adopted by additional jurisdictions
05
Launch DAF-backed voucher pilot with Community Foundation and Housing Authority
06
Pilot at least one AI or technology implementation that demonstrably increases system capacity
City Coordination Platform
Real-time dashboard per city showing bed and service inventory, referral tracking, and live data. San Jose is the active pilot.
San Jose
Pilot
Platform in active development. Housing Authority partnership in discussions.
Oakland
Pipeline
Initial convos with city housing dept. Golden Gateway integration planned.
San Francisco
Pipeline
City hall presentation scheduled. SFHSA relationship established.
Berkeley
Identifying
Champion identification in progress.
Marin County
Identifying
North Bay expansion with initial stakeholder mapping underway.
+
Partner Your City
Innovative Financing
Federal funding is shifting and the homelessness sector operates on a scarcity culture around public dollars. Meanwhile, significant private capital sits unused — looking for clearer pathways to impact.
This workstream is designing and piloting a privately-funded voucher pathway — a legally viable DAF-backed voucher structure using a Community Foundation as the vehicle, partnering with a Housing Authority to distribute and administer them. It targets populations and housing types not well served by existing public vouchers.
2026 deliverable
A pilot cohort of privately funded vouchers placed into housing, and a replicable framework other regions can adopt.
Technology & AI
The Bay Area's technology sector is uniquely positioned to help. The system is constrained not just by funding, but by workforce shortages, administrative overload, and fragmented tools. AI and technology can change that — if applied to real problems, not speculative pilots.
This workstream convenes homelessness stakeholders and technology leaders to identify high-priority pain points and pilot implementations that demonstrably increase capacity.
Guardrails
All technology work is required to be ethical, trauma-informed, and privacy-conscious. Innovation is aligned to real system needs — not what is technically interesting.
Get Involved
There is a role for you here.
Technologists, philanthropists, data specialists, city housing staff, and community foundations — this collaborative needs people who can build, finance, and connect.
Homelessness by the Numbers
Source: HUD · SF Controller · Haven for Hope
Data & Research
The evidence behind the work
This is the central evidence hub for Beyond Homeless. Key statistics, the interactive national dashboard, and links to the full research archive are all here. Every policy position and project decision taken by the collaborative is grounded in this body of evidence.
Data is maintained by the Independent Institute. For the full body of research, policy reports, and analysis behind this work, visit independent.org →
California spends more per homeless person than almost any state - and homelessness has continued to rise. San Francisco alone has increased spending by nearly 260% since 2013 with no corresponding decline in street homelessness. The data is not ambiguous: spending without a comprehensive model does not work. Haven for Hope in San Antonio demonstrates what does.
Performance metrics determine whether resources are helping or hurting. Without tracking outcomes, spending becomes self-justifying. BH tracks this data so the collaborative can make decisions grounded in evidence, not assumption.
What comes next
The current dashboard shows state-level data. The next version will include Continuum of Care (CoC) level data for more granular Bay Area tracking, and will add trend line graphs so changes over time are visible. 2025 figures will be added when released.
Full research archive
White papers, policy reports, op-eds, and the full body of Beyond Homeless research and analysis live at the Independent Institute.
Beyond Homeless is grounded in years of policy research, field work, and original scholarship. That research lives at the Independent Institute. White papers, policy reports, op-eds, and the book are all accessible there.
Beyond Homeless started with a question: if one city has dramatically reduced street homelessness, why hasn't that model spread? The answer turned out to be infrastructure - not money, not will, but the absence of any coordinating backbone to make it happen.
Origin
From documentary to action
Beyond Homeless began as a research and documentary initiative led by the Independent Institute in Oakland. The award-winning film Finding Hope explored what was actually working in cities that had made progress on homelessness - and what was blocking progress in cities like San Francisco.
The film brought tens of thousands of people into contact with the issue. It also brought the Beyond Homeless team into contact with Haven for Hope in San Antonio - a campus-based model that achieved an 80% decline in unsheltered downtown homelessness by combining housing with comprehensive wraparound services on a single site.
In 2025, Beyond Homeless led a delegation of 60 Bay Area leaders - nonprofits, government officials, funders, developers, and civic figures - on a trip to San Antonio to see Haven for Hope firsthand. What came out of that trip was a shared conviction that the Bay Area had the organizations, the land, and the talent to build something similar. What it lacked was coordination.
The Bay Area Collaborative is the answer to that gap.
Documentary
Watch Finding Hope
The film that started it all. Award-winning. Free to watch.
The connective tissue the Bay Area has been missing
The Bay Area is not short on organizations working on homelessness. It is short on coordination between them. Beyond Homeless operates as a neutral backbone - not a direct service provider, not a government agency, not an advocacy group - but the connective tissue that helps all of those organizations work toward shared goals.
The Bay Area Collaborative runs three workstreams: Campus Hub Development, which is moving large-scale transitional housing campuses from concept to reality; Policy and Funding Reform, which is building the coalition needed to create political cover for lasting policy change; and the Innovation Collaborative, which is building the coordination infrastructure that fragmented services currently lack.
What the evidence shows
01
Large-scale campus and hub models outperform fragmented, site-by-site approaches. Coordinated infrastructure delivers faster placements, better service integration, lower per-person costs, and stronger long-term stability.
02
Interim housing works when designed as an empowerment system, not a holding pattern. The distinction is not duration — it is design, integration, and intent.
03
Policy enables scale, but delivery infrastructure determines impact. The greatest bottleneck is not the absence of policy — it is the lack of clear, repeatable pathways for large-scale facilities to get built.
04
Private capital and executive leadership are essential, not optional. The strongest models combine public commitment with philanthropic risk capital and private-sector leadership — enabling the speed and innovation that public systems alone cannot provide.
Convening Network
Building relationships, surfacing shared priorities, and connecting Bay Area leaders who were previously working in isolation.
Coordination Backbone
Driving specific initiatives from concept to completion - managing timelines, facilitating introductions, and holding the work accountable.
The Texas Delegation
When 60 leaders saw the proof for themselves
In October 2025, Beyond Homeless organized and led a two-day delegation of Bay Area leaders to San Antonio and Austin, Texas. This was not a study tour. It was a structured working session designed to extract an operating thesis for California — pressure-testing what it actually takes to move from pilots to permanent change at scale.
The delegation visited Haven for Hope in San Antonio - a 26-acre campus serving 1,600 to 1,900 people nightly, with a 77% reduction in downtown homelessness and a documented $29 return for every dollar invested - and Community First! Village in Austin, a 51-acre master-planned permanent community developed by Mobile Loaves & Fishes, combining tiny homes, social enterprise employment, and deep community integration.
Participants met directly with the executives, operators, and civic leaders running these systems day to day - including Haven for Hope CEO Kim Jefferies, Close to Home Executive Director Katie Wilson, and Community First! founder Alan Graham. They were asked not just what works, but what breaks under pressure, what it costs, and what California would need to do differently.
Haven for Hope
San Antonio, TX - October 2025
Community First! Village
Austin, TX - October 2025
60+
Bay Area leaders on the delegation
5
Bay Area cities represented
2
Proven campus models visited in person
77%
Downtown homelessness reduction at Haven for Hope
Delegation represented
Mayors' offices & city housing departments
Philanthropic funders & foundations
Nonprofit service operators
Real estate developers
Private sector & business leaders
Policy & systems experts
Google, Crankstart, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
All Home CA, SF Foundation, Bay Area Council
Urban Vision Alliance, Dignity Moves, BACS
What the delegation concluded
Not all models are replicable - but the operating principles are
Haven is specific to San Antonio. Many cities have taken components. The return on investment speaks for itself.
Scale requires purpose-built infrastructure, not programmatic layering
Campuses and hubs must be treated as regional assets, not city-by-city experiments.
A private champion matters enormously
Haven's founding required a billionaire with the ear of government. Bill Greehey gave $80M to Haven and its partners. That kind of conviction creates permission for everyone else.
This complements housing first - it doesn't compete with it
Haven is the Bay Area's single largest assessor for connection to housing programs. The framing is adding capacity, not trying something new.
November 20, 2025 — San Francisco
From insight to alignment
Following the Texas delegation, Beyond Homeless convened regional leaders in San Francisco to translate what was learned into shared direction. The room included mayors from Oakland, San José, and Berkeley, alongside county officials, philanthropy, operators, developers, and policy partners.
Aligned around
Large-scale campuses and hubs as the regional priority
Signal from cities
Strong interest in regional partnership models that don't add administrative burden
The outcome
The meeting marked the transition from learning to commitment — the Bay Area Collaborative was formally structured within months
The Texas Delegation - Coming Soon
We are editing footage from the trip - site visits, leader interviews, and the working sessions that shaped the Bay Area Collaborative. Subscribe to be notified when it's available.
The trip also produced a January 2026 AMA session with Haven for Hope leadership - read the summary.
Leadership
Who leads this work
Mary L. G. Theroux
Chairman & CEO, Independent Institute
Mary Theroux has led the Independent Institute for over two decades, building it into one of the country's leading nonpartisan public policy research organizations. Beyond Homeless is an initiative of the Independent Institute, drawing on its research depth, institutional relationships, and longstanding commitment to evidence-based solutions to California's most pressing challenges.
Our award-winning documentary follows the search for what actually works in addressing homelessness - and what a real solution could look like for America's cities. It has screened for tens of thousands of people and sparked the conversations that led to this collaborative.
We are documenting the next chapter - the formation of the Bay Area Collaborative, the Texas delegation, and the work now underway to build the Bay Area's first campus hub. Subscribe to be notified when it releases.
Bay Area · 2025
The solution exists. Now we build it.
San Antonio showed what is possible. Beyond Homeless is doing it here. You can be part of it - whatever you have to give.
80% decline in unsheltered homelessness. $29 return for every dollar invested. Haven for Hope in San Antonio has done it. The Bay Area is next.
Haven for Hope, San Antonio · Independent Institute research
How you can help
Three ways to be part of this
1
Give your skills
Ex-political staff, lawyers, fundraisers, developers, real estate people - we need specific expertise, not just goodwill. Tell us what you've actually done.
We're not looking for general enthusiasm. We're looking for people who've done things. A former legislative staffer who knows how to move a bill. A lawyer who can review a land use agreement. A fundraiser who knows how to close a major gift.
Tell us who you are and what you've done. Michael Seiler, our Chief Impact Officer, reviews every submission personally.
About you
Take action
Write a letter. Show up on a Saturday. Share the film.
When there is a bill hearing, we send you a template and the right address. When there is physical work to do, we tell you where and when. When the second film drops, you hear first.
Sign up for action alerts
Support the work
Your money does specific things
We are the coordination infrastructure - the organisation that puts the right people in rooms together and keeps projects moving. Your contribution funds that directly.
$50
Materials for a community briefing with 20 leaders
$250
A month of policy coalition coordination
$1,000
A feasibility session with city officials on Golden Gateway
$5,000+
Strategic donor conversation - naming, campus sponsorship, capital campaign
If you have a fund at Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard Charitable - this work is exactly the kind of thing it was designed to support. We can receive DAF grants.
