What is Housing First? It’s a simple concept. It means putting people without homes into housing, first. The current homeless sheltering system does not operate this way. It was designed 30 years ago as a response to an emerging problem, and has resulted in a system of managing homelessness, rather than ending homelessness. In addition, there are unintentional adverse side effects associated with allowing families to live in temporary and emergency shelter for an average of 6 months in Massachusetts, and sometimes as long as 2 years. Side effects include increased depression among parents and children, an increase in poor academic performance, and an increased chance a family will be separated. Research and practice have shown that putting people experiencing homelessness into housing first helps them to more effectively and efficiently stabilize their lives and become more self-sufficient.
How does Housing First work for the participant?
While specific programs may adopt the concept of Housing First in various ways, there are 3 primary components in which most participants engage. These include:
Screening, Assessment and Planning: Upon entrance into a shelter or other
homeless services program, staff and participants determine immediate barriers to housing and devise a plan to address those barriers.
Housing Placement: As soon as a plan is in place to remove the immediate
barriers to permanent housing, action is taken to locate affordable housing and place the homeless individual or family. This often involves some type of emergency financial assistance or subsidy, and outreach to private landlords or housing authorities.
Home-based Case Management: After placement into a permanent unit, individuals and families receive home-based support services to continue stabilization efforts. These services typically last from 6 months to one year, and include things such as budgeting skills, job training and placement, counseling, and child care.
Who will Housing First help?
- 10,500 families will experience homelessness in Massachusetts this year
- 20,000 children are homeless annually in Massachusetts
- The average age of a homeless child is 8
- More than 1 in 5 homeless parents are working while in shelter, though homelessness interferes with finding stable employment and limits earnings
Why Housing First?
In addition to better outcomes for families served under this framework, Housing First simply costs less. The annual cost of a shelter room in Massachusetts averages $48,000. For an average of $2,222 per family Housing First can be implemented for a family through prevention and rapid re-housing services.
Housing First in Massachusetts
Between 1999 and 2003, the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), a group that provides primary care for people living on the streets, tracked the medical expenses of 119 chronically homeless clients. In total, the clients had 18,342 emergency-room visits. Each visit cost a minimum of $1000 a visit, bringing the annual bill to at least $36,000 per person.
February 2005: The Leadership Council to End Homelessness on Cape Cod and the Islands published “A Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness on Cape Cod and The Islands.”
May 17, 2005: the City of Cambridge published the “Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Cambridge
June 2005: the Quincy Leadership Council on Chronic Homelessness submitted their plan to end chronic homelessness in their city in ten years
April 25, 2006: Massachusetts State Plan to End Family Homelessness
October 2006 the legislature appointed Rep. Byron Rushing and Tina Brooks, Governor Deval Patrick's Undersecretary for Department of Housing and Community Development, to co-chair a commission to address solutions to homelessness.
October 2006: United Way of Massachusetts Bay, One Family, Inc., and the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance hosted, “Ending Homelessness: Housing First in Policy and Practice,” a state-wide conference to highlight "housing first" as a concept and practice, present research and build relationships among the community organizations, foundations and legislators.
August 2007: United Way invested $750,000 into Housing Service organizations that are either developing or expanding a Housing First Model. Including Crittenton Women’s Union, Father Bill’s Place, Homes for Families, HomeStart, Somerville Homeless Coalition, Inc., and Quincy Community Action Programs, Inc.
January 2008: United Way partnered with One Family and MHSA for a Leadership Summit on Housing First on January 23, 2008 at Northeastern.
Spring 2008: Governor Patrick, The House of Representatives and Senate Leadership all included $10 million in their proposed Fy09 budgets for Housing First type strategies to end homelessness.
