Now is the time for a national Housing First programme

This week sees the launch of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report Close to Home: Delivering a national Housing First progamme in England, calling for a national roll-out of Housing First.

Housing First

Housing First is a proven way of tackling and preventing rough sleeping for people whose experience of homelessness is compounded by multiple disadvantage. Instead of asking people to move into temporary accommodation and demonstrate their ‘tenancy-readiness’ Housing First provides ordinary settled housing alongside intensive, person-centred support.  International and UK evidence shows that typically around 80% of Housing First tenants sustain their tenancies, breaking the cycle of repeat homelessness.

One of the Housing First residents we spoke to during the CSJ project explained why the service had helped him to overcome a 30-year cycle of rough sleeping, prison and drug dependency.

He told us Housing First worked for him because there were ‘no hoops.’ 

He said previous attempts to reach out to him had failed in part because he had been expected to ‘jump through hoops’ to access help. With Housing First, he felt listened to for the first time and gradually began to trust his support worker. Within months he was able to access the settled home that became the foundation for his recovery. When we met him at the start of this year, the positive impact of Housing First on his life had been sustained for more than five years, and the support it provided was now being gradually reduced.

He saw himself as one of the lucky ones, able to access a life-changing service that is still not widely available across England.

The case for scaling up

Housing First is currently being piloted across three city regions in England, with many more small scale services supported through the Rough Sleeping Initiative. But the 2,000 Housing First places now available are a fraction of what’s needed. Homeless Link and Crisis estimate that at least 16.500 people are experiencing the combination of homelessness, serious mental health needs, drug or alcohol dependency and offending behaviour that mean they would benefit from Housing First. 

The pandemic has prompted an unprecedented mobilisation of resources to tackle rough sleeping, which  saved hundreds of lives in the early months.  But some people still living in emergency shelter have multiple support needs that would benefit from Housing First and, as a recent National Audit Office report has made clear, some have already returned to the streets. If Government is to meet its target of ending rough sleeping by 2024, it needs to act now to scale up Housing First.

What need to change?

The CSJ’s  report draws on the learning from the city region pilots and elsewhere to map out the steps Government should take to expand Housing First provision. We identify three key areas for change.  

Firstly, sustainable funding for support:  The report sets out the case for a cross-departmental budget of £451 million over three years to deliver 16,450 places, with a cautious estimate that this would deliver £1.56 in cost reductions for every £1 spent. This investment should be the first phase of a programme providing sustainable long-term funding for support.

Secondly increased housing supply. The report outlines changes needed to increase availability of social and private rented housing for Housing First..

Finally, effective national stewardship. The report outlines the changes needed to safeguard investment and ensure services are sustainable in the long-term, including effective cross-departmental and multi-agency working at national and local level.

In January 2021, the CSJ presented its evidence to the APPG for Ending Homelessness, which is currently holding an inquiry into how Housing First should be scaled up in England. The APPG has now launched a call for evidence from people who have been homeless and have direct experience of using Housing First services.  CIH members involved in delivering Housing First are encouraged to support residents to share their stories with the APPG.

As we approach the Government’s 2024 deadline for ending rough sleeping, now is the time for CIH members to add their voices to the call for a national Housing First programme.