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Housing First in International Contexts: What We’ve Learned

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IGH Community of Impact Webinar Series

29 July 2021

Housing First is a model of homelessness intervention that is targeted towards people experiencing chronic homelessness. As opposed to ‘staircase’ models that generally require program participants to meet certain requirements before attaining standard housing, the Housing First model is a housing-led intervention that addresses homelessness by first providing secure accommodations to program participants and then working to address their needs through providing case management and access to services and support as needed.

As the evidence base for Housing First’s effectiveness has grown, the model has proliferated throughout the world. As it has been implemented in new and diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts, Housing First has been adapted to suit new environments. This IGH Community of Impact webinar brought together Housing First experts to discuss the successes, prospects, and challenges related to Housing First’s development in an international context. Webinar speakers included:

  • Sam Tsemberis – Founder of Pathways Housing First
  • Karinna Soto – Jefa Oficina Nacional de Calle, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia, Gobierno de Chile
  • Susan McGee – CEO of Homeward Trust Edmonton (Canada)
  • Margaret Ann Brünjes – Chief Executive of Homelessness Network Scotland

Housing First v. Other Approaches

Sam Tsemberis, who developed the Housing First model in New York City in the 1990s, spoke first, contrasting the Housing First model with other models of homelessness responses. Tsemberis suggested conceptualizing homelessness programs as belonging to two broad categories: those that keep people homeless and those that end or prevent homelessness directly. Programs that focus on only temporarily sheltering people or providing treatment services often fail to adequately address the problem of homelessness. Conversely, programs that keep people housed, prevent them from becoming homeless, or provide housing without preconditions can be seen as a solution to the problem of homelessness directly by ensuring that people have access to housing.

Housing First falls into this latter category of housing programs, providing housing without other preconditions and emphasizing principles related to consumer choice; separation of housing and services; needs-based services; recovery-focused practice; and community integration and social inclusion. Tsemberis noted that this principled approach to addressing homelessness has now been tested through several random control trials and found to have double the success rate of the traditional ‘staircase’ model (~80% vs. ~40%). Tsemberis also cautioned that as Housing First is adapted to new contexts, it is essential that those implementing the model stay true to the core principles since fidelity to these principles is critical to the success of any Housing First program.

Adaptation & Success in Chile, Edmonton, and Scotland

Each of the speakers discussed the successes achieved through their Housing First programs. Karinna Sota reported that Chile’s program, which focuses primarily on homeless people 50 years and older who have been living on the street for over five years, has a housing success rate of 90%. Susan McGee, whose organization Homeward Trust Edmonton focuses heavily on indigenous homelessness, reported that their Housing First program had housed nearly 13,000 people since 2009, with 85% of people remaining housed after one year in the program. Margaret Ann Brünjes reported similarly high rates of housing success in Scotland, with the country as a whole having an average of 85%.

The rates of housing stability reported by the speakers are largely in line with those recounted by Tsemberis in regards to Housing First programs that have been effectively implemented. These outcomes suggest that the model can achieve similar levels of success in housing stability for the chronically homeless in varied contexts.

For Chile, Soto shared that the program has focused on community integration with Housing First being one of the programs in their Barrios Calle Cero program, an intersectoral strategy with the goal to reduce rough sleeping and advance in the goal committed as part of IGH’s Vanguard City program. The strategy is led by the Ministry of Social Development and Family, in alliance with different organizations public and private providing an installation of a network of integrated services.

McGee shared how Edmonton’s Housing First program is part of a robust system of housing with a coordinated access program to road map matching people to the right housing solution. Edmonton has also focused on providing indigenous-led housing first programs. With 60 percent of people experiencing homelessness identifying as indigenous, providing training to staff and programs with cultural supports has been critically important.

In Scotland, Homeless Network Scotland along with their partners developed Branching Out- A National Framework to start-up and scale-up Housing First. Brünjes spoke about the document which is both a route map and reference material for Scottish communities to scale up Housing First.

Housing First & COVID-19

The speakers also spoke of the challenges and opportunities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite launching their Housing First program during the pandemic, Soto mentioned that the program had been implemented successfully in Chile and likely resulted in cost savings overall. McGee noted that the pandemic has unfortunately had led to an increase of the inflow into homelessness in Edmonton and further argued that the sense of urgency created by the pandemic has served to refocus their efforts to address homelessness as the crisis that it is. Brünjes reported that homelessness was at record lows due to the pandemic, with fewer than ten people currently experiencing street homelessness in Glasgow. The pandemic also coincided with a shift in Scotland’s national framework for addressing homelessness.

Tsemberis pointed out that the pandemic had led to an unprecedented response to homelessness in many cities, such as in Los Angeles where people experiencing homeless were moved into hotels without having to meet restrictive requirements. The success and progress made by the three Housing First programs represented on the webinar, even in times of adversity, demonstrates that with adequate resources, commitment, and political will, Housing First can be an effective intervention for addressing chronic homelessness in various international contexts.

You can access resources and additional information from the webinar on IGH’s Community of Impact website. To learn more about international Housing First strategies, visit IGH’s Hub. You can watch the full webinar video on Youtube.

Homeless Prevention Strategies: What We’ve Learned

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IGH Community of Impact Webinar Series

25 March 2021

How do communities work upstream to prevent homelessness? How does data and evidence inform targeted prevention strategies?

In our recent Community of Impact Webinar, we investigated these questions by featuring homeless prevention experts and strategies from around the globe. Homelessness prevention works to address the causes of homelessness before it occurs. Traditionally, homeless services and systems focus on serving people after they become homeless. Growing evidence indicates that prevention strategies help communities reduce the number of people entering the homeless system. People who experience homelessness are not homeless due to some innate characteristic that they possess; homelessness results after a failure of multiple systems. It is important to understand the gaps that exist in systems in order to disrupt the inflow of people becoming homeless and drive change. 

A comprehensive approach to homelessness prevention operates at different levels, addressing both direct causes of homelessness and working further ‘upstream’ to address issues contributing to the loss of housing. Certain prevention strategies involve targeting resources toward those who are at imminent risk of homelessness by providing services such as rental assistance or landlord-tenant mediation to those at risk of eviction. Other preventative approaches seek to identify risk factors – such as school absenteeism or contact with social services – well in advance and intervene prior to a point of crisis. Communities may also seek to address underlying structural issues such as housing stability, for example, by prioritizing affordable housing development or access to housing subsidies to combat homelessness. 

This IGH Community of Impact Webinar featured four experts on homelessness prevention, each bringing their own unique perspectives to the topic. 

  • Abe Oudshoorn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Western University in London, Ontario and the Managing Editor of the International Journal on Homelessness. 
  • Lynette Barnes, Manager of All Chicago’s Emergency Financial Assistance Program
  • Katie Shomacker and Melissa Matthews, Team Leaders for the Geelong Project

Below are key highlights from the webinar from each of our speakers:

Abe Oudshoorn, Ph.D: Prevention & Empowerment – A Review of International Prevention Strategies

Oudshoorn spoke on the importance of identifying the opportunities that exist for intervention and preventing an episode of homelessness. He discussed shelter intake practices in Canada that are targeted towards helping at-risk families access resources to stay in their current housing or move to accommodations other than a shelter. He also highlighted the importance of effective discharge planning and the need to ensure that people leaving institutions such healthcare facilities are not discharged into homelessness. These prevention tactics underscore the importance of thinking about how to address inflow into the homelessness system by identifying how people are entering into homelessness and addressing these gaps. 

Oudshoorn also discussed the concept of empowerment as it relates to helping people faced with homelessness have agency in their own lives, arguing that empowerment must be central to addressing homelessness, since the struggle against homelessness is intimately related to the larger struggle for human rights. Homelessness manifests differently depending on the social and cultural context. In one country homelessness may have a dimension related to security for housing for migrant workers, while in another it may have dimensions related to a patriarchal property rights regime. It is therefore essential to ensure that addressing homelessness entails also addressing underlying power imbalances that contribute to homelessness and housing insecurity in the first place. 

Lynette Barnes on All Chicago’s Emergency Financial Assistance

Barnes spoke about the work done through the All Chicago Emergency Financial Assistance Fund, which allocates financial assistance to people who are at risk of homelessness. The Fund traces its roots back to 1973 when it was established as a general emergency fund for those who could not obtain support through other social service agencies in Chicago. The fund evolved over the years into its current form, which Barnes explained as being geared toward providing “small amounts of assistance to prevent larger crises from happening.” By providing short-term financial support for rent, transportation, utilities, and other basic needs, the fund helps keep people housed and addresses some of the gaps in social services. 

Due to the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the fund recently partnered with the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing in order to prevent evictions. This was necessary, Barnes pointed out, since an eviction filing against a tenant can cause future complications for securing housing. Additionally, the fund has started engaging with landlords to secure units for their rapid rehousing activities, which helps to accommodate people living in encampments. Barnes closed by noting that the fund has distributed nearly eight million dollars to over 3,000 households throughout the course of 2020. 

The Geelong Project’s Youth Homelessness Prevention

Schomacker and Matthews shared a video about the work being done by the Geelong Project to prevent youth homelessness in Geelong, Australia. Youth homelessness in some contexts is less visible than other forms of homelessness, often manifesting as couch surfing or living in a series of impermanent arrangements. The Geelong Project works within the school system, using a comprehensive survey to identify students who may be at risk. Then, the project provides case work and support services to students and families to help with the issues they are facing. An early evaluation of the Geelong Project’s work found that it had achieved a 40 percent reduction in students presenting at youth homeless entry points and a 20 percent reduction in students dropping out of school. 

Data & Prevention

Each of the webinar panelists stressed the importance of a nuanced, community-centered, and data-driven approach to homelessness prevention. Oudshoorn mentioned the importance of using what data is available in a community to understand the groups who are in need. The Geelong Project ‘s school surveys collect  information on risk factors among students, allowing them to target their prevention efforts towards at-risk students. Barnes discussed the importance of having data on the people who are contacting the All Chicago emergency assistance fund for help, noting that the main driver of fund applications over the past year has been job loss related to the pandemic. Having quality data allows for a better understanding of the population that needs services and a more efficient allocation of scarce resources to prevent homelessness. 

You can access resources and additional information from the webinar on IGH’s Community of Impact website. To learn more about international prevention strategies, visit IGH’s Hub. You can watch the full webinar video on Youtube.

This Month in Homelessness: October 2020 sees launch of new initiatives to address homelessness globally

Posted on by IGH

World Homeless Day (WHD) is observed on the 10th of October each year to increase awareness of the needs of people experiencing homelessness and opportunities for communities to get involved in responding to homelessness. WHD emerged from online discussions between people working to respond to homelessness from various parts of the world. The international awareness day aims to amplify the global movement to end homelessness. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and organizations across the world continue large-scale efforts to combat the issue through research, virtual convenings and campaigns, and knowledge exchange.

Organizations continue to drive the Vincentian mission through urgent, collaborative responses to homelessness worldwide. St. Vincent de Paul led and inspired work with people experiencing street homelessness, including children and refugees. The DePaul University Division of Mission and Ministry (DMM) featured the Institute of Global Homelessness in their Seeds of the Mission campaign, which aimed to highlight stories of mission-in-action through which people at DePaul. DePaul’s Grounded in Mission: The plan for DePaul 2024 names street homelessness in strategic priority 1.2.C — “provide thought leadership in addressing pressing issues of social and environmental justice, including global efforts to eradicate street homelessness” and priority 1.2.E urges the university to “better coordinate and advance our mission-based community outreach efforts at the local, national, and international levels.” “The Vincentian values are at play in the work of IGH every single day,” said our Executive Director, Lydia Stazen. In theDMM campaign, Stazen discusses IGH’s three signature strategies of “see it, solve it, share it” to achieve its mission to eradicate global homelessness, in support of those goals.

Convened by The Shift, along with organizations worldwide, the Global Homelessness Action initiative provides people experiencing homelessness with an opportunity to collectively claim their right to housing. It aims to amplify individual voices and demand concrete and urgent action from governments through video, audio, and written testimonies. The Shift invites anyone living without shelter to claim their right to housing through the global campaign.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted racial inequity across the United States. According to the National Innovation Services (NIS), people experiencing homelessness are among those most affected by both the pandemic and the long-standing and compounding impacts of structural racism. The NIS Center for Housing Justice undertook a range of focus groups with people with lived experience of homelessness to improve understanding of the impacts and implications they have for policy and service priorities, through the Framework for an Equitable COVID-19 Homelessness Response project. NIS produced population-specific briefs that included these top policy shifts: 1) crisis response that ends the use of large, 2) congregate shelters; 3) dignity-based services led by communities most affected by homelessness; affordable housing in the most impacted communities; and 4) decriminalization.

On the occasion of World Homelessness Day, UN-Habitat hosted the Housing and Social Protection for all to End Homelessness Roundtable. The virtual event, jointly organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and UN-Habitat, brought together high-level technical experts — our Advisory Committee Chair, Dame Louise Casey; Daniela Bas, Director of the Division for Inclusive Social Development of UN DESA;  Christina Behrendt, Head of ILO’s Social Policy Unit, Social Protection Department; Freek Spinnewijn, Director, European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA); Liz Madden, Expert of lived experience of homelessness; and Iris Bailey, Expert of lived experience of homelessness, to discuss the renewed urgency of addressing homelessness within the context of a COVID-19 new normal. Read the World Homelessness Day 2020: Housing And Social Protection At The Core Of Homelessness Prevention Strategies here.

Indigenous Peoples Day is observed each year on the 12th of October. The Homeless Hub describes Indigenous homelessness as First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals, families/communities experiencing a lack of stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate means to acquire such housing. Indigenous homelessness is more fully described and understood to encompass Indigenous worldviews, including isolation from their relationships to land, animals, cultures, languages, identities, etc. Métis scholar and author of Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, Jesse Thistle,and international leader in indigenous health, Janet Smylie’s 2020 article Pekiwewin (Coming Home): Advancing Good Relations with Indigenous People Experiencing Homelessness outlines clinical guidelines for health and social service providers seeking to build relationships with Indigenous Peoples experiencing homelessness. Making the Shift’s In Conversation webinar series recently welcomed Thistle as its first guess for Jesse Thistle on Indigenous Homelessness in Canada and the role of lived experience in research.

World Statistics Day is an annual, global collaborative endeavour, organized under the guidance of the United Nations Statistical Commission on the 20th of October. The 2020 theme — Connecting the World With Data We Can Trust, reflected on the importance of trust, authoritative data, innovation, and the public good in national statistical systems.

Learn more about how you can help IGH end global homelessness.