File photo.

Fresno and Madera counties are among 15  communities who will be participating in a new effort fight the issue of chronic homelessness.

At the annual South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, Kaiser Permanente made an announcement they’d entered a partnership with Community Solutions, pledging $3 million to the organization over the course of three years.

This money will be used in Community Solutions’ Built for Zero initiative, which uses real-time data to help local leaders better understand the dynamic of homelessness in their areas. This in turn helps the communities adopt problem-solving tools and technologies to end homelessness and the conditions that create it.

“Kaiser Permanente is investing in efforts to reduce homelessness and housing insecurity because there is a proven link between housing and health,” said Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser Permanente CEO and chairman. “Addressing affordable housing and homelessness is crucial to Kaiser Permanente’s mission to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve, and to advance the economic social and environmental conditions for health.”

Fresno and Madera counties will be joined in California by Sacramento, Richmond and Contra Costa counties, Watsonville and Santa Cruz County, and Kern and Riverside counties.