Housing first - Where is the evidence?

Despite new federal and provincial government initiatives to assist with housing, in the last ten years the number of homeless persons continues to increase. With this increase a sizable number of sub-populations have emerged: families with children, people with mental illnesses, those with a primary substance use issue, immigrants and refugees, youth and seniors. The premise that most homeless people are without housing because of functional skill deficits grew out of historical impressions that hobos of the Great Depression were all alcoholics and those thereafter came from the mental illness deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The ongoing move to community treatment saw many persons who had become reliant on the care of others thrust into the community without the financial and ancillary supports required for housing stability (Metraux, et al., 2010). Because of the high prevalence of mental health and substance use issues in the homeless population (sometimes a cause of homelessness, but often a consequence of life on the streets), in the last twenty-five years, in most instances programs for people who are homeless modeled their re-housing programs after the format used for those with mental illness and addictions issues. The result was a “treatment before housing” approach across the spectrum of homeless service providers. In other words, people need to resolve their mental health and/or addictions issues before they can be ready for housing. In the last ten years a radical transformation has occurred in the attitudes and practices guiding housing programs that provide emergency and long-term housing for homeless people. This shift evolved from linear or step-wise models of either coupling housing with treatment, or of requiring treatment prior to obtaining permanent housing (Treatment Continuum – TC) (Padgett, et al., 2006), to a priority placed on housing without treatment expectations (Brown, 2005). The latter approach has been labelled housing first (HF) and has rapidly acquired wide-spread adoption by communities with 10-year plans to end homelessness in Canada and the U.S. (e.g. Calgary, Toronto, Minneapolis, San Diego, New York) and by mental health service providers seeking housing stability for clients (Newman & Goldman, 2008). Fuelled by some scientific evidence (Atherton & McNaughton Nicholls, 2008), and increasingly made popular by press and housing authorities developing “10 year plans” to eradicate homelessness, hous

Year

2012

Language

English

Publisher

Homeless Hub Press

Editions

1

ISBN

9781550146196

Data source: Wikidata