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Housing First Evidence Hub

Housing First is not the only model needed to support pathways out of homelessness, given the diversity of people’s lives and contexts. However, the evidence on Housing First is so compelling that it must be a substantial part of the solution to homelessness.

How Housing First came about

The basic principles underpinning Housing First have been established and implemented in various contexts since at least the 1990s. The groundwork for Housing First grew in the context of a cohort of people in New York who had been sleeping rough for long periods of time and were repeatedly being failed in attempts through the public service system to change their circumstances and health. These conversations with people about what it would take for them to recover universally identified the need for ‘housing’ and ‘a home’.

From these conversations, the ‘Pathways to Housing’ service response was created. This program provided access to permanent housing without any housing-readiness criteria, and people were simultaneously provided with intensive wraparound support through a multidisciplinary team. This approach differs from the long-standing staircase approach of the homelessness system which requires that people prove their housing readiness through engaging with supports before being housed – which has lower housing retention rates and fails to solve homelessness permanently.

The success of this program, and many others since then, has led to an international scaling-up of Housing First initiatives.

Housing First today

We now see Housing First in many countries worldwide. There are growing evidence bases within each context, however very different political and service delivery environments.

Housing First has proven highly effective in providing housing stability for people with a history of chronic homelessness and complex needs, demonstrating significantly higher levels of sustained tenancy (typically ranging from 66-90%), relative to ‘treatment as usual’ approaches. The success of Housing First programs is not just in housing outcomes, but in non-housing outcomes, such as increased access to support and health services and reduced involvement with criminal justice and hospital systems. Housing First is a resource-intensive intervention, and is most cost-effective for people experiencing chronic homelessness who have complex and high needs.

One particular success story comes from Finland. Finland has notably ended homelessness through Housing First via rigorous housing supply and policy. The experience of Finland shows that making real inroads into addressing homelessness requires broad systemic reform of existing housing and homelessness systems, in addition to adequate income support and a social welfare system that focuses on long-term, rather than intermittent and crisis support. Implementing quality Housing First initiatives in NSW and Australia is not as simple as transplanting international findings onto our specific geographic and political context.

Housing First in Australia

In 2008, the Australian federal government released the white paper ‘The Road Home’. This watershed proposal aimed to halve homelessness and offer supported accommodation to all rough sleepers by 2020. This strategy committed to ending homelessness by facilitating social innovation under the banner of Housing First, and to provide funding for support agencies to develop service models suited to the Australian context.

In 2020, the Australian Housing First principles in use today were created by Australian Housing First trainers and endorsed by Homelessness Australia. Australia is relatively early in their Housing First journey and learning on the go. Housing First initiatives are increasingly of interest due to the potential to create a paradigm shift in Australian homelessness policy by articulating the importance of rapid access to permanent housing options, and the necessity of providing a comprehensive package of support that aligns with individual needs.

Housing First in NSW

NSW has successfully delivered many Housing First initiatives. This includes congregate-site models, such as Common Ground, assertive outreach in Sustaining Tenancies in Social Housing (STSH), and scatter-site models such as Together Home and STEP which headlease private rental properties. Housing First initiatives in NSW have largely been funded as pilot-programs, which exist in a system that is struggling to address homelessness. To scale-up Housing First in NSW there are opportunities for further systems change work to ensure that Housing First initiatives are sustained, and the homelessness system is positioned to respond to people experiencing chronic and complex housing instability.

Resource Bank

If you’d like to learn more about the Housing First programs delivered in NSW, you can find some of the program evaluations in our Housing First Resource Bank.

View Resources

Together Home

Homelessness NSW have been administered to deliver the High Needs funding component of the Together Home program.

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