Chester County’s Department of Community Development (DCD) recently received international recognition for its accomplishments in ending homelessness. Pictured are (L-R): Lauran Rillstone, DCD’s Community Services/Construction Manager; Kelly Raggazino, CEO of Open Hearth, Inc.; Cory Lovera, Housing & Community Resource Manager for Open Hearth, Inc.; Rob Henry, Administrator for the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness; Emily Kopp, DCD’s Lead Street Outreach Team Coordinator; and Hilary Haake, DCD’s Data and Street Outreach Team Manager.
The Chester County Department of Community Development (DCD) has received international recognition from Built for Zero for its progress in reducing and preventing homelessness. The honor was recently presented at Built for Zero’s international conference in Denver, Colorado.
DCD was recognized for achieving Quality Data for the Chronic Population, a milestone that reflects the County’s strong infrastructure for addressing homelessness. The metric recognizes communities that share a unified definition of ending homelessness, operate through a coordinated, countywide team, rely on real-time client-level data, prioritize equitable service delivery, and make targeted, data-informed housing investments.
Built for Zero also commended the department for expanding partnerships with new organizations and behavioral health providers, as well as for elevating the voices of individuals with lived experience of homelessness in the County’s planning and decision-making processes.
Chester County CEO David Byerman highlighted the measurable impact of the County’s collective efforts.“Dolores Colligan and her team deliver conscientious, results-oriented service to Chester County’s most vulnerable populations, and the numbers show meaningful progress,” Byerman said. “We’ve seen a 33 percent decrease in first-time homelessness over the past two years — from 694 individuals in 2022 to 465 in 2024, and the number of people entering emergency shelters has been cut nearly in half over the past five years.
“We continue to prioritize affordable housing development across the county. These achievements reflect our unwavering commitment to ensuring that every adult, child, and senior has a safe and stable place to call home.”
DCD Director Dolores Colligan emphasized the power of collaboration.“We have more than 150 partners and stakeholders working toward the shared goal of ending homelessness,” Colligan noted. “The information they contribute enables us to make data-driven decisions about how resources are allocated and how programs are designed. Without their decade-long collaboration and dedication, the progress we have made would not be possible.”
Built for Zero is an international movement consisting of more than 100 communities committed to ending homelessness in a measurable, equitable, and sustainable way. The initiative supports communities in adopting shared goals, implementing proven methodologies, strengthening local homelessness-response systems, and collaborating across sectors to drive lasting change.
