Housing first
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Housing First is a relatively recent innovation in human services and social policy regarding treatment of the homeless. Rather than moving homeless individuals through different "levels" of housing, whereby each level moves them closer to "independent housing" (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a shelter run by a state agency, and from there to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment in the community) Housing First moves the homeless immediately from the streets or from homeless shelters into their own community-based apartments.
Pioneered by Sam Tsemberis and the organization Pathways to Housing in New York City in the early 1990s, Housing First is premised on the notion that housing is a basic human right, and so should not be denied to anyone, even if they are abusing alcohol or other substances. Previous models — and many current models — require the homeless to abjure substance-abuse and seek treatment in exchange for housing. As such, Housing First models have been greeted with some skepticism and even hostility by mainstream service-providers, governments, and other non-profit entities, such as the church.
Housing First is currently endorsed by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) as a "best practice" for governments and service-agencies to use in their fight to end homelessness in America, and is similarly endorsed by government agencies that deal with the homeless in the United Kingdom.
Housing First programs currently operate throughout the United States in cities such as New York (NY), Denver, Colorado, San Francisco, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Quincy, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among many others, and are intended to be crucial aspects of communities' 10-Year Plans To End Chronic Homelessness also advocated by USICH.
