What is Housing First?
Housing First uses housing as a starting point rather than an
end goal. Providing housing is what a Housing First service
does before it does anything else…
A Housing First service is able to focus immediately on
enabling someone to successfully live in their own home as
part of a community.
Source: Housing First Guide Europe
www.housingfirstguide.eu
English, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Czech, and coming soon Swedish and
German
What is Housing First?
• a recovery-oriented approach to homelessness
• moving people who experience homelessness into independent and
permanent housing as quickly as possible,
• no preconditions
• providing people with additional services and supports as needed
• The underlying principle of Housing First is that people are more
successful in moving forward with their lives if they are first housed
(Framework for Housing First, 2013)
What does Housing First look
like?
• Housing comes first, not after
someone is deemed ready
• There are no conditions, like sobriety,
applied to tenants
• People are not discharged into
homelessness
Core principles
1. Housing is a human right:
Legal security of tenure, affordability,
habitability, location, etc.
2. Choice control for service users:
Self-determination = starting point, shared
decision making, essential to recovery
model
3. Separation of Housing and
Treatment
Housing is not conditional on behavioural
change or accepting treatment
4. Recovery orientation:
Focus on the overall well-being of an
individual including mental and physical
health, social support and social
integration
Core principles
5. Harm reduction
Harm reduction seeks to persuade and
support people to modify drug and alcohol use
that causes them harm…and offers support,
help and treatment but does not require
abstinence
6. Active engagement without coercion
Positive engagement with HF users to engage
with the help that they need.
7. Person-Centred Planning
Organise support and treatment around an
individual and their needs; emphasis on
choice and control for service users.
8. Flexible support – as long as required
Support intensity can rise and fall with
individual need, from a few months to
beyond. Needs change over time.
Housing First Framework
What kinds of SUPPORTS
are needed?
Key Supports
Housing Supports
• Help finding housing
• Negotiate with landlords
• Build relations with
landlords
• Obtaining rent subsidies
• Setting up apartment
• Landlord mediation
• Develop skills for
independent living
Social Supports
• Health
• Mental health
• Addictions
Complementary
Supports
• Life skills
- Relationships
- Conflict resolution
- Meaningful activities
- Volunteering
• Income supports
- Finding work
- Education
- Training
• Community engagement
Housing First – going global
USA, Canada, Australia
EU: Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Finland, France, Ireland, Italy,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, UK…
Scaling-up - Evidence of
effectiveness; Advocacy
Why Housing First?
• International evidence – proven practice, ready for adoption and
adaptation
• Cost effective – reduces costs in a range of services including law
enforcement, emergency health care, social services
• The shift is not as difficult as it seems – pilot projects can be scaled up
• It works; tenants/residents and staff report positive results – outcomes for
homeless people, new skills and satisfaction for staff…
Evidence – cost savings
Canada – At Home/Chez Soi
experientation project
For every $10, an average savings of $9.60 for high
needs/Assertive Community Treatment participants and
$3.42 for moderate needs/Intensive Case Management
participants.
For the highest needs clients (top 10%) every $10 invested in
HF services resulted in an average savings of $21.72.
(Goering, et al., 2014 NationalAt Home / Chez SoiFinal Report)
Evidence snapshot - Finland
• Implementing Housing First on a
large scale:
• Homelessness dramatically reduced
• Cost savings estimated that for each
homeless person that is housed - off
the streets - saves social and other
services around €15,000 a year
• Cooperation between govt, NGOs,
social and other housing sectors
• Integration of HF in national
homelessness strategy
• Important role for prevention
Evidence snapshot – EU
France – study + results = legislation
and scaling up
UK – pilot projects + national
network + feasibility study =
increased interest at NGO and govt
levels
England, Scotland (testing Housing
First for Youth), Wales, NI (strategies)
Denmark – established practice =
impact on homelessness
Belgium – pilot projects + evaluation
= national policy to scale up
Housing First
Pilot projects provide solid evidence base – it’s time to start scaling up
It works and it’s possible
Evidence shows that it reduces homelessness, respects human rights,
and results in better outcomes for people who have experienced
homelessness;
Opportunity to use ESF – e.g. Hungary, Czech Republic
If you have a homelessness strategy – HF can be a very useful part of
the solution;
The Housing First Europe Hub
• Launched in 2016 by FEANTSA and YFoundation to promote the scaling up of
Housing First
• Organisations, foundations and public
authorities
• Finland, UK, France, Belgium, Sweden,
Spain, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands,
Norway