Pilot Project
The pilot phase is from October 2018 to September 2021 and serves to test the effectiveness of the approach. The successes to date confirm: Housing First for Women in Berlin works; the empowerment approach as a basic idea enables women to a life in self-determination.
The objective of the support service Housing First for Women is to contribute towards leading a deacent and self-determined life by ending homelessness through means of renting ones`s own apartment. For this purpose, the women affected by homelessness are placed directly and as quickly as possible in their own apartments as main tenants. Need-based outreach and assisted living and visiting services is guaranteed on the basis of voluntary acceptance. The women are encouraged to recognize their own strength again, with the goal of leading a self-determined life (empowerment).
Specific goals are therefore:
- Immediate, unconditional accommodation in the own apartment, the rent of which must be within the framework of the current provisions of Berlin's social services regulations
- in combination with outreach counseling based on voluntary acceptance
- separation of personalized help and accommodation
- strengthening the women and regaining their personal strength (empowerment)
- ability to lead a self-determined life
- permanent preservation of the own home.
Based on this, the Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen e.V Berlin, with the pilot project Housing First for Women, aims to mediate at least 30 homeless women into their own apartments by the 30th of September 2021.
The bottom line: It works – and more successful than one thought! As of May 2021 37 women are already living in their own apartments.