Housing First promised to be a silver bullet to solve homelessness. Why are we still waiting?  

Housing First gained a reputation for being the solution to homelessness, particularly after its success in Finland. It’s never been quite that simple, of course – there’s no one-size-fits-all. But the Housing First model – giving someone a home alongside support for as long as they need – has been proven to work in countless studies. So why hasn’t it conquered the globe? 

Scotland and Wales have made Housing First a big part of their response to homelessness – 1,820 tenancies in Scotland and 792 tenancies in Wales have been started with people remaining indoors in around 90% of cases. In England, there are a number of small-scale Housing First schemes but the three big government projects – in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham – remain pilots, despite debuting in 2018.

That’s not because they are unproven. Far from it. The government’s evaluation was published a year ago. It found 1,061 people had been supported across the three regions with 84% of tenancies maintained – anything over 80% is considered strong. Each person cost £7,700 per year in support but the evaluation showed long-term savings estimated at £15,880 per person each year. 

As yet, there is no indication the Labour government is planning on rolling out Housing First across England. In fact, when Labour MP Lee Pitcher asked new homelessness minister Alison McGovern if there would be a rollout, her response dodged the question.  

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We still don’t know if Housing First will feature in the government’s upcoming cross-government long-term homelessness strategy. Think tanks have suggested options: Centre for Social Justice said this summer – in a report Big Issue contributed to – that a targeted expansion could deliver 5,571 places by 2029-30. The Social Market Foundation went further. It said a national rollout of 11,200 places would generate net benefits worth £195 million over five years. 

But until Labour indicates otherwise, Housing First has “stagnated” in England. That’s the view of Alex Smith, the Housing First lead at Homeless Link: “We’ve done Housing First in parallel to the rest of the homelessness system. We’ve sold it on the idea that it is this very specific model for a very specific group of people and scaled it up on the basis that it’s not going to disrupt the rest of the system. 

“Honestly, I think we have exhausted where we can get to with that approach and we still want to see that long-term ambition that’s been a 30- to 40-year endeavour in Finland. We’re nowhere near that.” 

That’s not true of all areas – Greater Manchester has embraced a wider Finland-inspired Housing First philosophy under mayor Andy Burnham. Last year, he launched a Housing First Unit, promising that Greater Manchester is ready to deliver 75,000 new homes in the current parliament. 

The US and abroad 

Still, stagnation is better than turning your back on Housing First completely.  

Housing First, while associated with Finland, was actually developed in New York in the 1990s. Clinical psychologist Sam Tsemberis is credited with the idea. But in July, the White House ordered states to “end support for Housing First policies that deprioritise accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery and self-sufficiency”. 

Executive orders signed by Donald Trump called for a shift in how homelessness is tackled, moving towards forcefully putting people in “long-term institutional settings for humane treatment” in a bid to “restore public order”. 

First introduced under George W Bush, Housing First became official federal policy in 2013 under Barack Obama. So why has the US turned away from Housing First? 

Christopher Calton, research fellow in Housing and Homelessness at the libertarian Independent Institute think tank, told Big Issue he believed the approach had sent costs spiralling and made people “lifelong wards of the state”. 

“The combination of these policies that fall under the Housing First umbrella is that homelessness spending grows rapidly, but by neglecting people who want help and are capable of becoming self-sustaining, we force people into a downward spiral until they become lifelong dependents, assuming they survive at all,” said Calton. 

Read more:

• Alison McGovern: ‘Homelessness crisis is a reminder of how politics can fail people. It cannot continue’
• Housing First is a success in other countries – so why can’t we make it work in the UK?
• Oxford university lecturers are turning to food banks. The scandal is that it’s no longer shocking

“It is a policy designed to keep people in the system, rather than help them gain independence from it.” 

The impact of America’s actions has global consequences. Homeless Link’s Smith said the country has led the way in producing trials and evidence to show Housing First works. That’s now at risk. 

“It feels like they’re a beacon of inspiration in some ways in terms of the model,” said Smith. “So to turn their back on it, I think the worry is whether that kind of approach is going to start following here.  

“Trump has that ideology of individualism. Like, you are the maker of your own fate be it good or bad. Anybody could become a billionaire and if you don’t work hard enough and you don’t sort things out then you’re going to be homelessness. We don’t want that kind of approach here.” 

But Housing First has flourished in other countries where the political situation has not always been supportive. World Habitat, an international charity, has championed Housing First projects from Chile to Croatia, from Slovakia to Hungary and across the globe. 

The Budapest-based From Streets to Home Association has managed to build up Housing First projects in hostile political conditions. Co-founder Vera Kovacs said homeless people are “excluded from society” by the national government but its projects have changed thinking in the Hungarian capital. 

The €10 million (£8.7m) Discus programme was so successful in Amsterdam that the municipality adopted Housing First as official homelessness policy in 2017. 

Meanwhile, the Fundación Hogar de Cristo’s Housing First Programme in Chile has benefitted 734 people since it began in 2019, and operates in six regions with government backing. 

The secret to making Housing First a success is bravery. 

Ella Hancock, homelessness programme manager at World Habitat, said: “Housing-led approaches and Housing First work – the evidence is overwhelming. 

“The problem is that instead of becoming the mainstream response to homelessness, it’s still treated like an experiment.” 

With Labour’s long-term strategy on the horizon, the time to commit to Housing First is now if there is any chance of following in Finland’s decades-long journey to success. 

“I think where we’re at is really just trying to keep the momentum and the motivation up around Housing First rather than this big systems transformation,” said Smith. “It’s actually: are we in danger of losing Housing First altogether? Let alone it being a catalyst for broader systemic transformation.  

“What Housing First needs is stable, long-term funding. It almost feels like it’s stagnated a little bit. And I think that’s lack of political leadership. 

“Beyond March of next year, I feel very uncertain about what’s going to happen.” 

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