Housing First - Provincie West-Vlaanderen

The Global Influence of HousingFirstHousing First has become globally important becauseof the unparalleled success that it has shown inproviding stable housing and accommodation forchronically homeless people. Housing First hasbeen central to the Federal homelessness strategyin the United States under both the Bush andObama administrations. Housing First services havebeen integrated into the homelessness strategies ofFrance, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlandsand Sweden and are being widely tested in pilotprogrammes across many EU Member States. TheJury for the European Consensus Conference onHomelessness, held in Brussels in December 2010,recommended that ‘housing-led’ approaches werethe most effective solution to homelessness and thatthe different forms of Housing First service weregood examples of these ‘housing-led’ services.The Case for Housing FirstThere are three main reasons to consider usingHousing First services in France.❱❱The core philosophy of Housing First is thereason for the success that has been achievedin delivering stable housing and accommodationfor formerly chronically homeless people. TheHousing First philosophy can be drawn uponwithout copying the detailed operation of HousingFirst services working in the USA. The ideas ofHousing First can be used to design services thatcan be used to reduce long-term homelessnessin different countries with different welfaresystems. An example of this has been the useof the Housing First philosophy to effectivelyredesign homelessness services in Finland.❱❱Housing First is highly flexible. The corephilosophy has been adapted from the PHF modeland employed in CHF and HFL services that canbe focused on both chronic homelessness andon other forms of homelessness.❱ ❱ Housing First services can support othertypes of homelessness services, for example,by stopping very long stays in emergencyaccommodation beds by chronically homelesspeople. It is important to note that Housing First isnot designed to replace all existing homelessnessservices and has been used as one part of amixture of services to respond to homelessness.By supporting the work of other homelessnessservices, Housing First services can potentiallyenhance their capacity to respond to issues suchas migrant homelessness and homelessnessamong families with low support needs in France.6