The Concept of Housing First

By the 1990s the psychiatrist Dr. Sam Tsemberis, from New York, developed and tested the concept of giving homeless people first of all a home and after that they can face other challenging situations in their lives.

The approach of Housing First was tested as a pilot project in five European cities from 2011 to 2013. The result was a high rate of apartment preservation (between 80 and 90%). Meanwhile this approach is successfully implemented in over 13 European countries.

The following principles, which strengthen the idea of empowerment, are the foundation of the “Housing First“ approach:

   a) housing as human right

   b) respect, heartiness and empathy for all clients

   c) support as long as needed

   d) decentralised, individual housing

   e) separation between apartments and personal help

   f) options and self-empowerment

   g) focus on the healing process

   h) harm-reduction; an approach of acceptance

Housing First includes the principle of support without limitation. For example apartments are offered to clients until they take one and enter into a rental agreement. When they have an apartment, they can ask for support according to their needs, but this is voluntarily. This voluntariness requires a lot of flexibility from the social workers. For clients it is possible to withdraw for a long time without asking for support and help and even rejecting help.

After a long time of rejecting support, they can ask for support once again and this without time limit.