Housing First - Provincie West-Vlaanderen

Housing Firstmove out if they do not use the drug, alcohol ormental health services which are offered to them.Whether this is comparable to PHF is debatable,because it is sometimes only accommodation –or just one type of housing in a block with otherservice users – that is being offered by the CHFservice.❱❱Consumer choice and self-determination. Thechoices offered by PHF are not limitless: serviceusers have to accept a weekly visit from asupport worker, have to follow the terms of theirlease or tenancy agreement and have only somechoices about where to live set by the availablebudget. However, the PHF model offers morechoice and control than a CHF model becauseit is designed to provide service users with arange of options about where and how they willlive. In addition, service users in a PHF modelare physically separated from the mobile supportservices that are on offer to them, whereas theusers of CHF are generally on the same siteas the support services. CHF services offer farmore ‘consumer choice’ than a staircase service,because they allow chronically homeless peoplechoices about which services to use and whetheror not to drink and use drugs, but they do notallow chronically homeless people any choiceabout where to live.❱❱A recovery orientation and harm reduction 74 .CHF services do follow the recovery orientationand the harm reduction approach which togetherform the seventh and eighth elements of the PHFphilosophy.In summary, a CHF service shares many aspectsof the PHF philosophy, but it differs in oneimportant respect, in that some CHF services offer‘accommodation’ or a single housing option first,rather than genuine community-based ‘housing’ first.Such services may offer some security of tenureand may even be a self-contained apartment, but itwill be an apartment in an apartment block that isdesigned only for chronically homeless people. Thisis not the same as the ordinary apartments that arescattered across a community which are used byPHF services.The Housing First philosophy and CHFservices in FinlandIn February 2008, the Finnish governmentintroduced a strategy that was intended to halvelong term (i.e. chronic) homelessness. Finlanddecided on an approach that involved extensiveuse of a CHF service model 75 in the context oftheir strategy to reduce long-term homelessness.A key part of the strategy was to redesign andmodify what were defined as ‘residential homes’ (i.e.institutional communal accommodation with on siteservices) to make them into ‘residential units’ thatwould be supported using services that followed aHousing First philosophy. The main goals were 76 :❱❱to provide secure permanent housing with atenancy agreement to long-term (chronically)homeless people;❱❱to reduce the use of conventional homelessnessshelters/emergency accommodation by changingthese services into blocks of supported, rentedapartments;❱❱the prevention of eviction by means of housingadvice services and financial support;❱❱drafting plans for individual rehabilitation andservices (i.e. involving chronically homelesspeople in planning and choosing their ownsupport services);❱❱provide guidance in the use of normal socialwelfare and health services (i.e. provide servicebrokerage services), and❱❱promote social inclusion for formerly homelesspeople.74 Tsemberis, S. (2010a) op cit, p. 18.75 Busch-Geertsema, V. (2010) The Finnish National Programme to Reduce Long-Term Homelessness: Discussion PaperPeer Review: Finnish national programme to reduce long term homelessness http://www.peer-review-social-inclusion.eu/peer-reviews/2010/the-finnish-national-programme-to-reduce-long-term-homelessness76 Luomanen, R. (2010) Long term homelessness reduction programme 2008-2011 Peer Review: Finnish nationalprogramme to reduce long term homelessness http://www.peer-review-social-inclusion.eu/peer-reviews/2010/the-finnishnational-programme-to-reduce-long-term-homelessness25