Mike Simonsen
Mike Simonsen is the founder and president of real estate analytics firm Altos Research, which has provided national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country for more than 15 years. An expert trendspotter, Mike uses Altos data to identify market shifts months before they hit the headlines.
In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Elizabeth Funk, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of DignityMoves, to talk about real progress being made with the crisis of homelessness in America.
Elizabeth shares DignityMove’s innovative interim housing solutions, deep insights about the American system of housing and homelessness, and dramatic success stories from cities all over California that are reaching functional zero unsheltered homelessness.
About Elizabeth Funk
Elizabeth is the founder & chief executive officer of DignityMoves, a nonprofit developer that works with municipalities to bring people indoors quickly, safely, and at scale.
Elizabeth is a pioneer of impact investing and microfinance. Her career blends Silicon Valley high-growth start-up entrepreneurship with innovative impact initiatives that align for-profit and nonprofit approaches to accelerate positive social impact outcomes.
Elizabeth has been actively involved in homelessness in California for nearly two decades. She served on the board and chaired Glide Memorial’s Community Housing initiative, on the board of LifeMoves, a leading homelessness services organization in Silicon Valley, and on the real estate advisory board of HomeRise, a permanent supportive housing developer in San Francisco.
Elizabeth holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- What is “Functional Zero Unsheltered Homeless” and why does it matter?
- How costs, building standards, zoning laws contribute to homelessness and what we can do about it
- Why tackling homelessness in the first few weeks of displacement is critical
- What is interim housing, how it can solve the unsheltered crisis, and why it costs half as much as we’re currently spending
- Why many local governments still object and resist to new approaches to tackling the crisis
- The new political leaders committed to fixing the problem
- Why the “Aha!” moment is upon us with homelessness
Resources mentioned in this episode
About Altos
Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.
Schedule a demo to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business.
The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.