A recent wave of Housing First models has policymakers lauding its radical approach. Housing First is an approach to helping homeless people that prioritizes quick and permanent housing so that people can focus on other areas of their lives. This model differs from past approaches because there are no requirements to getting housed, meaning that people do not have to be working, be sober, or have a certain type of family.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 75% of families remain housed one year after being rapidly-rehoused. In the past ten years, non-profits and government agencies working with homeless families have invested in the Housing First model as a go-to strategy because of the promising empirical evidence that it can help families break out of the cycle of homelessness.
The underlying assumption behind the Housing First model is that people will be able to improve their lives and work on their problems with the advantage of stable housing. As expected, being housed can make lots of aspects of a family’s life easier including staying healthy and doing schoolwork. If families are housed quickly, then other areas of their lives should fall into place, or so the Housing First model says. For example, it is easier to keep a drug treatment appointment if you are not traveling from a homeless shelter, or easier to do homework if you have a quiet room with a roof. Living in low-poverty neighborhoods is especially beneficial for families’ mental health and children’s academics.
However, service providers and practitioners insist that Housing First is not the miracle strategy it’s made out to be.
If Housing First is not the magical solution to homelessness for families, then what is? Karen Thomas, Director of the Shelter Diversion Rapid Rehousing Division at Project Plase, has worked to rehouse families for the past twenty years. Thomas says that only long-term commitment to families can take them out of homelessness, not just putting them in housing and expecting other issues to resolve themselves. Even if service providers like Project Plase can get a family into a housing unit that is large enough to accommodate them, the family’s income may not be able to keep them in that unit once support from the non-profit organization ends. Long-term housing vouchers to subsidize rent until families have built up savings could help with this issue.
Ingrid Lofgren, Director of the Homeless Youth Initiative at the Homeless Persons Representation Project, also emphasizes matching people with the right resources rather than promoting a one size fits all solution like rapid rehousing. Many of her teenage clients have experienced trauma or are disabled, which means that they can’t work. Even if these people can get into housing, it is unreasonable to expect them to work and build income to afford market rent in a short time. The same logic can apply to people who need mental health assistance; it would be difficult for people to address serious mental health issues and rapidly get income to afford market rent. Lofgren says that providing both services and housing is more sustainable than providing housing multiple times when the same people get back on the streets.
Thomas says that solutions start from top-down policies that make more money available and prioritize long-term solutions for families. However, the on-the-ground work that people like her every day is invaluable. Looking at the tangible things that help families move into houses, including providing food and household appliances, advocating with landlords, and making sure clients keep appointments are just some of the tasks Thomas has. "I'm always putting out fires," Thomas says about her day-to-day activities. Perhaps giving service providers and agencies the capacity put out those fires is one of the most important things that policymakers can do because those fires are things that can land families back into homelessness. People should be cautiously optimistic about the Housing First model and realize that it may not help all homeless people in every situation.
By: Sophia Strickland
