Husband · Father · CEO · Speaker · Artist
Gaither
Stephens
Homeless policy expert. Data guru. Designer. Building tools that help organizations end homelessness, plus the occasional batch of BBQ chicken.
What I do
Helping organizations end homelessness with data.
Custom dashboards
I build dashboards that turn HMIS data into decisions: shelter occupancy, demographics, system performance, outcomes.
Gaither DynamicOpen research
Public dashboards and analysis on housing and homelessness policy in the United States. Independent. Reproducible. Free.
Gaither ResearchCoC Alliance
A network of over 1,900 Continuum of Care and HMIS leaders across the United States. Free to join. Peer-to-peer support.
CoC AllianceA bit about me
I started in radio broadcasting in 1997 and stayed seventeen years. Communication, storytelling, connecting with people who weren’t like me. In 2016 I switched into homelessness services, and now I work nationally building data tools and leading the CoC Alliance.
Outside of all that I’m a passionate musician (drums, piano, occasional karaoke), a recipe-tinkerer, and a husband and father in Port Charlotte, Florida.
Newsletter
Notes from the field.
A monthly newsletter on homelessness, data, and the systems built to end it.
Housing decisions and HUD data should show their work.
Late July. The same heat I wrote about last month is still sitting on much of the country, and for people living outside it remains one of the most…
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Homelessness fell in 2025. It vindicates neither side.
It is the end of June, and the country is sweltering. For people living outside, the danger just flips with the calendar: in January it is the cold,…
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How America Cut Homelessness in Half
How the country once cut homelessness in half, and the hard reasons we are not going to repeat the model.
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A Community Success Story That Reads Like A Failure
Every CoC director has lived this and most cannot explain it. A thought experiment: answer it in your head before you scroll.
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Returns Is the CoC's Job. First-Time Is Not.
Returns to homelessness are a fair thing to grade a Continuum of Care on. First-time homelessness is not. Here is why.
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380 CoCs. 10 Years of Data. One Free Dashboard.
Ten years of data across 380 Continuums of Care, pulled together into one free, public dashboard.
Read newsletterOn Substack
Essays & long reads.
Longer pieces on housing policy, data, money, and the occasional detour.
Scrub In: What a Local Leadership Class Taught Me About Showing Up for My County
A year on the bus with twenty-five strangers, a press box at Carmalita Park, and the case for finding the leadership program in your own backyard.
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The Thoughts Are Always Mine
What Stephen Hawking, autism, and communication friction taught me about authenticity and technology.
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How America Cut Homelessness in Half
How the country once halved homelessness, and why we will not extend the model.
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Why First-Time Homelessness Is Not a CoC Failure
Returns to homelessness are a fair thing to grade a Continuum of Care on. First-time homelessness is not.
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Race, Rent, and Power: How America Designed Its Housing Crisis
The vocabulary changed. The system kept extracting.
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What I'd Tell You About Money If I Had One Conversation
The financial system has two sides. One builds wealth. The other extracts it. Most people never learn which one they're on.
Read essayTalks
On the stage.
Conference talks and presentations on data, AI, and ending homelessness.
From Data to Impact: Using Visualizations to Drive Homeless System Change
Watch
Race, Rent, & Power
Watch
Housing First, Equity Always
Watch
Increase Capacity through AI Technology
Watch
AI in Social Services: Enhancing Organizational Efficiency
Watch
Enhancing Social Service Organizations
WatchFrom the kitchen
Recipes I actually cook.
Real recipes I’ve dialed in over time, written so anyone can follow them.