Step Up America

Our big idea? Scalable housing solutions. We’re at #CGI2023 to share the next big idea in ending homelessness. We’re committed to bringing together partners from across the public and private sectors to house 500 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and serious mental health conditions in North Carolina and provide them with rich wraparound supports. With the support of our partners, we can scale this groundbreaking model across the country.

Comprehensive case management and supportive services are key to helping new members stay housed long-term. In Step Up America communities, like the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing development, our sister nonprofit, Step Up, provides mental and physical health services and life skills programs for residents. They consistently see a 97% retention rate among those housed.

Housing First advocates the provision of client-preferred services based on the premise that individuals know what is best for themselves and that services are to be directed by an individual’s self-determined goals. The number one supportive service requested by Step Up members is housing. Not a pill, a program, or a protocol, but a place to live.

Motel conversions, like Step Up in Asheville, offer many benefits to the local community. Motels are typically in desirable locations with access to public transportation, shopping, and amenities. Blighted motels are often seen as a nuisance to the community, so the project removes that nuisance. Since many are in commercial districts, there is usually less community resistance to developing a PSH project on the site.

As industry experts in scalable housing solutions, our mission at Step Up America is to identify and promote the adoption of replicable housing development models that are faster, cheaper, and yield more units than traditional construction--ultimately providing more units at scale to end homelessness and transform communities.

Public-private partnerships bring together government entities, private investors, and nonprofit organizations to accelerate the development of motel conversion projects. Step Up in Redlands went from groundbreaking to grand opening in less than six months thanks to the work of the City of Redlands, County of San Bernardino, State of California, and Shangri La Industries.

To end homelessness, we need more homes. Yet traditional housing models can be costly and time-consuming. The Step Up America model utilizes public-private partnerships to fund motel conversions, creating new permanent supportive housing at half or even a third of the cost and in a third of the time.

Opened in 2023, Step Up in San Bernardino is ending homelessness for more than 75 people in Southern California. Not too long ago it used to be an aging motel. Motel conversions like this are one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to create more permanent supportive housing. They are a key component to our innovative housing model.

The solution to homelessness is simple: it’s more homes. With proper support, people succeed at wildly successful rates once housed. That’s why we are committed to scaling our proven model to communities across the country. As our friend Philip Mangano from the American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness likes to say, “We know what to do, and we know how to do it. We just need a lot more of it.”

Step Up America is an industry leader in scalable housing solutions to end homelessness. We are changing the way our communities and our nation address this problem that has grown to epidemic proportions. By disrupting traditional housing models, we are transforming lives and revitalizing communities.