Housing First - Provincie West-Vlaanderen

statistics are not based on tested measures ofsocial or economic inclusion and cannot be assumedto be robust; the indicators used are also veryrestricted. What evidence there is suggests limitedgains in social inclusion but no effect on economicinclusion 124 . There is no systematic evidence on theextent to which HFL services may influence socialand economic inclusion.Cost effectivenessHFL services have not often been subject to detailedcost analysis 125 . The total costs are difficult tocalculate because of the reliance of HFL serviceson service brokerage. While the costs of deliveringan HFL service can be calculated, the HFL willcreate costs elsewhere as it connects homeless andpotentially homeless people to health, social careand welfare services, as well as to other supportservices. In addition, HFL services are also usedas a homelessness prevention service for peoplewho are at risk of homelessness, but who have notactually been homeless. Cost effectiveness can bedifficult to assess because it involves projection ofthe costs of homelessness that was thought to be atrisk of occurring, but which did not actually occur.There is the potential for HFL services to reduceoverall costs on the same basis as for PHF andCHF services, simply creating housing stabilityappears to reduce the use of emergency medicalservices and reduce the rate of contact that somehomeless people have with the criminal justicesystem. However, PHF and CHF have their costeffectiveness assessed on the basis of working withchronically homeless people, individuals who tend tohave a high financial cost for emergency services.HFL services would seem likely to generate similarsavings if working with chronically homeless people,but, as is the case with PHF services, the savingsmay be less obvious if the homeless people withwhom a HFL service is working have lower supportneeds. This is because homeless people withlower support needs may make much less use ofemergency health services and have less or littlecontact with the criminal justice system, so deliveringhousing stability for this group may generate lessof a financial saving. As noted above, there arestrong humanitarian reasons for not assessingthe effectiveness of HFL and other Housing Firstservices in simply financial terms 126 .40124 Centre for Housing Research (2010) op cit.125 Tabol, C. et al (2009) op cit; Hickert, A.O. and Taylor, M.J. (2011) op cit.126 Culhane, D.P. (2008) op cit