“How many of you have heard of a glimmer? A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger — moments that create joy and hope. There’s a lot of triggers right now. Glimmers are an active and intentional way of countering them.”
Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, opened the 2025 Innovations & Solutions to End Unsheltered Homelessness Conference with these words, capturing the event’s spirit. The conference united thousands across the U.S. to share effective policies, practices and resources to end homelessness. It inspired hope, highlighting glimmers like the persistent decline in veterans’ homelessness and last year’s 5% drop in unsheltered homelessness in L.A. County—the first in six years—including a 10.5% decline in the city of L.A., thanks to effective and equitable policies.
Oliva also honored President Jimmy Carter’s legacy, one close to our hearts at the Foundation as a decades long partner of the Carter Center’s work to eradicate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Oliva quoted Carter’s grandson, who said of the renowned humanitarian at his funeral: “His life was about love for his fellow humans and living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. He believed in the wisdom of regular people raising their voices and respecting all voices, not just some. He never saw his work as a place for pity but as a place for partnership and power, and to carry out that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Hear from other attendees about their hopes for the future and why they believe we can end homelessness in the United States.