Free Up’s Policy Framework

The Free Up Foundation team has spent 75 years successfully tackling homelessness from the front lines. Their framework is designed to efficiently and cost-effectively reverse a region's homeless trajectory in five years, including the dismantling and defunding of “no longer needed” programs as a region’s population declines. Its pillars include:

• 1)    Eliminate Housing First as the nation’s exclusive approach to homelessness.

  2)    Redefine success from “housed” to helping people realize their full, God-given potential.

  3)    Refund temporary residency programs that instill community, accountability, and growth. Shelters with rules, transitional housing programs, and sanctioned encampments, all of which facilitate the efficient delivery of treatment services should be included. (Only 10-20% of the homeless population are likely to need “subsidized for life” housing.)

  4)    Fund and require (as needed) treatment services including mental health and substance abuse counseling, and employment training.

  5)    Ban unsanctioned encampments which are often plagued with crime, drugs, sexual abuse, and are increasingly the source of fires.

  6)    Re-engage the faith-based and law enforcement communities that were ostracized by HUD as it emerged as homelessness’ CEO.

  7)    Regularly measure and report progress towards success. Fund and reward success.

A Bold Path to Lasting Change

Free Up delivers a transformative and turnkey homeless solution to reverse our country’s crisis, region by region. Our rehabilitative, merit-based approach drives individual rehabilitation, restores communities, and slashes wasteful spending, achieving turnaround within five years.

Human First: Reclaiming Lives

Born from the failures of the one-size-fits-all Housing First approach, Free Up’s Human First approach— rooted in recovery, restoration, and decades of front-line experience— goes beyond housing to rebuild lives. Our streamlined, outcomes-driven framework operates alongside a region’s current system to halt homelessness’ growth.

Human First Impact Principles

• Clear pathways to health and self-reliance for clients

• Restored local control and innovation

• Reclaimed public spaces for safe, shared use

• Integration of law enforcement, faith-based groups, and other integral partners who were previously sidelined

• Accountability at every level— individual, non-profit and systemwide— with regular outcome reporting

• Free Up tens of millions in resources to address other regional needs

Efficiency With Lasting Results

Our proprietary tools pinpoint exact restorative capacity a region will need to achieve full turnround, and the scaling up and back timelines to eliminate the waste associated with “no longer necessary” infrastructure.

Free Up works in close collaboration with local leaders while fully managing every aspect of the system—assessing needs, selecting sites, choosing providers, implementing solutions, and tracking results to free up local leaders from day-to-day operations. Once stability is achieved, we transition the system to local oversight.