How to stop homelessness before it starts | Jen Loving

0:02You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Homelessness can feel like something that's just too big to fix, too complicated, or something we've learned to walk past. Nonprofit leader Jen Loving has spent her entire career proving that this dismissive instinct is wrong.

0:24Jen Loving: We've been conditioned to believe that homelessness isn't solvable. that it's too complex, that it's too expensive. But the truth is, it's a lot easier to solve than you may think. Jen leads Destination Home, an organization working to end homelessness, and a grantee of Ted's Audacious Project. Her family ran a shelter out of a church when she was a kid, and she's worked in the field ever since, in shelters, on the streets, in camps, and housing programs. In her talk, she argues that we've been fighting homelessness backwards, waiting for people to hit rock bottom instead of stepping in before they fall.

1:05It comes down to prevention, an idea we rely on in almost every other part of life, but for some reason, not to housing.

1:13Jen Loving: We screen for cancer early because it saves lives and money. We reinforce bridges before the hurricanes hit. And every single day, every single one of us put our seatbelts on when we get in the car, just in case we're in an accident. But when it comes to housing insecurity, we like to do the opposite. We prefer to wait until the crisis has already happened. Jen shares how her prevention model has already kept thousands of people in their homes and why acting on homelessness before it happens isn't just more humane, it's cheaper too. She offers a genuinely hopeful reminder that some of our hardest problems aren't as impossible as they seem.

1:53That's coming up right after a short break.

2:01Hi there, it's Adam Grant from Ted's Rethinking Podcast, and this episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. I get to spend my days studying how people think and what it actually takes to change our minds. It's work I find deeply meaningful. But even in meaningful work, there's still busy work. The admin, the repetitive processes, the invisible load that pulls attention away from what really matters. That's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it. Start to finish. Cases closed. Requests handled. No extra work for you.

2:34To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

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4:27And now, our TED Talk of the day.

4:30Jen Loving: About 20 years ago, I was working the front desk of the largest homeless shelter in Silicon Valley, and that's when Tanya walked in. She looked exhausted. the kind of weary that comes from having no place to go and no idea what to do. She was clutching a satchel tightly to her chest like it was all she had left. And then all of a sudden, the satchel started to cry. Inside was her newborn baby. She shared that she had been assaulted, which led to her pregnancy. Prior to that, she'd been working a minimum wage job and renting a room in San Jose. But when complications from her pregnancy arose, she had to stop working.

5:15Jen Loving: So she lost her job and then her home. So when she was discharged from the hospital, she had no place to go, no home to go back to, no savings, no family to call. She was discharged from the hospital with a list of shelters and a bus token. So Tanya did what too many people in our community do when they're in crisis. She rode Hotel 22, our only 24-hour bus line that doubles as a moving homeless shelter for those with nowhere else to go. And she rode that bus for two days with her baby in her arms. Tanya's story is heartbreaking, but what's worse is it's not rare. It's not exceptional. This kind of thing happens in America every single day.

6:07Jen Loving: In 2024, homelessness in America reached the highest levels ever recorded. There were over 771 ,000 people without homes in our country. And that was an 18 % increase in just one year. And for every one person on the streets, there are thousands more on the edge, living paycheck to paycheck, one unexpected bill or crisis away from losing it all. We've been conditioned to believe that homelessness isn't solvable, that it's too complex, that it's too expensive. But the truth is, it's a lot easier to solve than you may think. Prevention is the key to having less people on our streets over time. In almost every other area of public policy, we understand the value of prevention.

7:06Jen Loving: We screen for cancer early because it saves lives and money. We reinforce bridges before the hurricanes hit. And every single day, every single one of us put our seatbelts on when we get in the car, just in case we're in an accident. But when it comes to housing insecurity, we like to do the opposite. We prefer to wait until the crisis has already happened. But just like diseases and natural disasters have warning signs, homelessness does too. a missed job, a death in the family, a medical emergency, just to name a few. And because these patterns are predictable, it means we can and must intervene sooner.

7:50Jen Loving: Because homelessness doesn't have to be inevitable. And if we continue to act like it is, we will never solve it. In 2017, in Silicon Valley, one of the highest cost-of-living regions in the world, My organization, Destination Home, alongside a core set of partners, launched a homelessness prevention system. Since that time, we've helped over 44 ,000 people remain in their homes.

8:24Jen Loving: Not with complicated programs and endless steps, but with fast, targeted, flexible support right when it's needed the most. You see, we stopped waiting for someone to show up at a shelter, and we created a new option. A system to pull people back from the break. Let me explain how it works. Take Rose, a single mom who, due to an unexpected layoff, has been unable to pay her rent. So now she owes back rent, and she's facing eviction. So we meet with her, and we complete a vulnerability assessment. We're not just looking at her finances. or looking at any other conditions that are contributing to her housing insecurity.

9:07Jen Loving: And through this assessment, we learn that Rose is at severe risk of homelessness, but also likely to be able to stay housed with just a little bit of support. So then we act fast, getting Rose what she needs in as short of a time frame as possible. In her case, that meant paying off her back rent, working with her landlord, and helping her avoid the eviction. And with that little bit of help, Rose and her son were able to stay stably housed. And she's not alone in figuring this out. She gets a caseworker, someone who sticks with her, helping her navigate her new job, her new benefits, her new childcare.

9:50We're not just a check, we're a partner in rebuilding.

9:58Jen Loving: And this isn't just anecdotal. It's been rigorously evaluated. The University of Notre Dame's research is clear. Not only is our approach statistically significant at keeping people housed in both the short and longer term, but for every dollar we invested in prevention, we saved the public$2.47.

10:26Jen Loving: But the most important number? One. one mom, one child, one family who didn't have to fall through the cracks. And that's what this is really about. Not abstract statistics, but real people with real lives and real futures. Through this work, families will remain in their homes. Their children will be able to remain in school. And public costs drop dramatically because shelter stays, emergency room visits, and arresting people simply for being poor is far more expensive.

11:10Jen Loving: My family has been running a homeless shelter out of a church since I was a child. That means I have witnessed a lot of suffering, and I have done this work professionally ever since in every type of setting you can imagine. Shelters, streets, camps, housing programs. And prevention has always been the missing piece. So that's why, with generous support from the audacious community, we've launched Right at Home, a national movement to stop homelessness before it starts.

11:51Jen Loving: We're doing this because we believe in the value of creating a system that actually works for people before they are in the worst moments of their lives. So now, we're replicating our model across 10 diverse communities, rural, urban, and tribal all across America to prove that preventing homelessness is possible everywhere. Imagine if you didn't know where you were going to sleep tonight. How productive would you be able to be today when in just a few hours you know you'll be putting your children to sleep in the back of your car? How much work would you get done if you didn't know how your family was going to survive the night.

12:44Jen Loving: The single most obvious answer to our homelessness crisis is to stop it from ever happening in the first place.

13:00Jen Loving: Together, we can stop homelessness before it starts. And together, we can keep people right at home. Thank you.

13:37TED. This episode was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Taubner, and Tanzika Sungmarnivong. Additional support from Daniela Ballarezzo, Christopher Faze-Bogan, Valentina Bohanini, Banban Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey Lott. Learn more at podcasts.ted.com. I am Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feet. Thanks for listening.

14:14Jen Loving: This episode is sponsored by Ashby. Every talk you hear on this show started as an idea, and every idea that actually gets built needs a team. Today's sponsor, Ashby, is the software that supports hiring for those ambitious teams. Ashby is the all-in-one recruiting platform used by the teams at Lovable, Notion, Plaid, and Clay. If you wish that AI could help you move faster through scheduling and scorecards, that you could find that silver medalist candidate from 18 months ago in a few seconds, or that you had better visibility into the state of your candidate pipeline, Ashby is for you. See why over 80 % of Forbes' top AI companies choose Ashby to hire the best talent.

14:53Jen Loving: And visit www.ashbyhq.com slash TED.

15:02Hi there, it's Adam Grant from TED's Rethinking Podcast. And this episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. I get to spend my days studying how people think and what it actually takes to change our minds. It's work I find deeply meaningful. But even in meaningful work, there's still busy work. The admin, the repetitive processes, the invisible load that pulls attention away from what really matters. That's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it. Start to finish. Cases closed. Requests handled. No extra work for you.

15:35To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

16:04Stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.