housing first

homelessness. Among the groups who Housing First services can help are people who are home-less with severe mental illnesses or mental heal-th problems, homeless people wiheal-th problematic drug and alcohol use, and homeless people with poor physical health, limiting illness and disa-bilities. Housing First services have also proven effective with people who are experiencing long-term or repeated homelessness who, in addition

«Housing First is probably the single most impor-tant innovation in homelessness service design in the last 30 years. Developed by Dr. Sam Tsem-beris in New York, the Housing First model has proven very successful in ending homelessness among people with high support needs in the USA and Canada and in several European countries.

Housing First is designed for people who need significant levels of help to enable them to leave

This methodology bases its work upon eight core principles, that are visible in the picture on the left. (fig. 33)

Within these, «Housing First pursues a range of service priorities, which include offering help with sustaining a suitable home and with im-proving health, well-being and social integration.

Housing First is designed to provide opportuni-ties to access treatment and help with integra-tion into a community. There is also the opintegra-tion to get help with strengthening social supports to other support needs, often lack social

suppor-ts, i.e. help from friends or family and are not part of a community.»²²⁸ (Pleace, 2016)

With these words, Nicholas Pleace opens the offi-cial "Housing First Guide - Europe", giving a brief introduction about the history and the role of this practice. Before moving forward, it is important to point out that Housing First is not an architectu-ral typology, but a housing process that takes ad-vantage of private apartments as starting point for addressing and supporting people’s needs.

FIG. 34 | Summarising the differences between Housing First and Staircase Services

Image Source: Tsemberis, S. and Henwood, B. (2013) Housing First: Homelessness, Recovery and Community Integration. In V. Vandiver (ed.) Best Practices in Community Mental Health: A Pocket Guide, pp. 132-150. NY Oxford University Press

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and with pursuing rewarding opportunities, such as arts-based activities, education, training and paid work.»²²⁹

The great innovation that this methodolgy has brought into the scene is that of inverting the pro-cess established for a long time with the "stairca-se approach" and putting the home as a right and as a requirement for the reintegration of home-less individuals into society. (fig. 34)

«Housing First is also focused on improving the health, well-being and social support networks of the homeless people it works with. This is very different from homelessness services that try make homeless people with high support needs

‘housing ready’ before they are rehoused. Some existing models of homelessness services requi-re someone to show sobriety and engagement with treatment and to be trained in living inde-pendently before housing is provided for them.

In these types of homelessness service, housing happens ‘last’.»²³⁰

Even with some differences, within Europe it is gaining more and more popularity with its

posi-tive results, not only because it is generally more effective than staircase services according to some results, but also because it addresses eth-nical and humanitarian issues in a better way and seems cheaper in terms of management: rai-sing the efficiency of a service (for example, re-ducing the frequency of use of medical centers and homeless services in general) helps making some savings that can be invested in additional housing provision.

Here are some key characteristics of the program.

AFFORDABILITY

What service providers (mostly NGOs) usually do is making partnerships with housing organiza-tions, buying units and then renting them to pe-ople at a lower price than the normal or private housing market. Since the ultimate goal is to era-dicate homelessness and poverty, monthly fees tend not to overcome the poverty threshold price set at 30% of disposable income. This includes all kind of amenities, from support to group activi-ties and coverage of basic needs.

SUPPORT

Housing is essential for the program, but the in-tegration of support which aims to make people independent is vital. (fig. 35)

228, 229, 230. Nicholas Pleace, Housing First Guide - Europe, February 2016, pp.

12-19, https://housingfirsteurope.eu/assets/files/2017/03/HFG_full_Digital.

pdf

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tending participation in meaningful activity»²³¹. In order to do so, groups of multidisciplinary te-ams or experts, guided by the Housing First staff, are engaged to provide intense help every day at every time in two different modalities: in most of the cases, counseling happens directly at the in-dividual’s home with a frequency of one time per week, but it may change according to the level of emergency of the case, while sometimes specific locations, like cafés, are mutually agreed for me-etings. Other than helthcare, whenever there is an impelling necessity, the program can offer some forms of subsidised payment and also some help in managing finances.

SUSTAINABILITY

From an architectural point of view, it is difficult to assess the sustainability of materials and te-chniques used for the realisation of apartments.

The fact of being single private apartments scat-tered across the urban complexity means that every case is different from the others. One

com-«Support in Housing First centres on delivering housing sustainment, the promotion and support of good health and well-being, developing social supports and community integration and

ex-231. Nicholas Pleace, Housing First Guide - Europe, February 2016, p. 55, https://

housingfirsteurope.eu/assets/files/2017/03/HFG_full_Digital.pdf FIG. 35 | Types of support provided by Housing First programs

Image Source: Nicholas Pleace via "Housing First Guide - Europe" (https://housingfir-steurope.eu/assets/files/2017/03/HFG_full_Digital.pdf)

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mon practice, though, is to renovate those places that, in their former state, may harm new inha-bitants’ well-being. It is less frequent, but some-times private Housing First flats are gathered in big housing complexes, which are built with more sustainable measures.

What is easier to analyze is the economic su-stainability of the program: Housing First relies mainly on rents from users for what concerns in-vestments, but its activity is largely if not com-pletely funded by public organizations or directly from the municipality through dedicated sectors.

Also the European Union has targeted expendi-tures and funds for humanitarian purposes like this one.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY

By owning a fully fledged apartment from the housing market, users are granted of complete privacy and security, so that people are free to chosse whether to coduct their life alone or with personal relationships. In addition, square meters are always adequate (more than 25m² for a single person) in order to make sure that houses have enough space to deliver home support and to put people in a friendly and welcoming environment.

Born as a service for addressing long-term home-lessness, Housing First must, in fact, guarantee

all the comforts for a pleasant stay, especially those for preserving the integrity and the dignity of individuals.

LIMITED ACCESSIBILITY

«There are three main mechanisms by which a Housing First service can deliver housing:

1. Use of the private rented sector

2. Use of the social rented sector (where social rented housing exists)

3. Direct provision of housing, by buying housing, developing new housing or using existing hou-sing stock.»²³²

Relying on the actual housing market and then being subject to market trends, housing provi-sion may result sometimes difficult and some challenges need to be addressed. Some of them include:

1. finding an appropriate settlement in an adequa-te place in conditions of high-pressure demand;

2. in the private sector, quality standards are be-coming more and more rare;

3. in the social rented sector, apartments may be

232. Nicholas Pleace, Housing First Guide - Europe, February 2016, p. 55, https://

housingfirsteurope.eu/assets/files/2017/03/HFG_full_Digital.pdf 3. the value of the home

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destined to other groups of people rather than ho-meless;

4. traces of stigmatization still prevent homeless people to be accepted by some landlords or some neighbours;

5. some people cannot afford even low or subsidi-zed rents;

6. because Housing First is still and experiment in most European countries and not fully imple-mented in national strategies, applications for the services largely overtake the physical availa-bility of apartments, accounting for endless wai-ting lists.

On the other hand, though, once accepted, Hou-sing First does its best for preventing people to leave the service. Only in case of "nuisance" (com-plaints about bothering by neighbours) the indivi-dual is warned and, eventually, moved to another place, but not directly evicted.

TRACEABILITY

People in the program are fully registered and, therefore, easily identifiable.

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