Housing First must expand in 2025 to create a national homelessness strategy that works for all

Housing First is a specific support model intended for people who experience the most complex disadvantage, including long-term and repeat homelessness, physical and mental health issues, offending behaviour and substance misuse.

It gives people a home unconditionally, alongside intensive, open-ended support. In October, the government published the final evaluation report and cost benefit analysis for its regional Housing First pilots, which were launched in 2017 with an initial investment of £28million across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands.

The pilots were designed to test the model over multiple local authority areas and exploring how regional devolution could support its development. Their evaluation provides highly positive evidence around the holistic success of Housing First, reinforcing existing research into its impact.

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The services supported 1,061 people into independent tenancies, with tenancy sustainment of 84% after three years – a figure in line with international evidence. But we know that Housing First is far more than simply a homelessness solution. The 12-month client outcomes data confirm that it is effective at addressing multiple support needs, driving improvements in health, wellbeing, offending behaviour, social connectedness and safety.

The report does indicate a lack of progress around individuals’ drug use and problematic alcohol intake at the 12-month point, though this is unsurprising given what is known about residents’ need for long-term support. Separate Homeless Link research, however, shows that by the end of the third year with Housing First there is a 22% reduction in drug or alcohol use alongside an increase in engagement with substance use services.

For those who may be sceptical about the cost effectiveness of Housing First, the pilot cost benefit analysis shows an average spend of £7,700 per person per year, with long-term savings estimated to be £15,880 per person per year, concluding that ‘the pilots have delivered good value for money’.

Beyond the regional pilots, well over 100 local Housing First services across England successfully support thousands of people, who have typically fallen through the gaps and been unable to engage with traditional homelessness, health and care services.

Certainly, Housing First has a key role to play in ending rough sleeping that cannot be replaced simply by building more affordable housing or providing low level, standardised support. Research suggests that at least 16,450 people with the most intensive support needs across England would benefit from Housing First, and that in 2020, approximately 1,995 people – less than 15% of this number – were being supported.

To this end Homeless Link have for years been calling for a sustainably funded national roll-out to ensure the intervention is available for everyone who needs it. Estimates from 2021 suggest delivering Housing First at scale would require £150.3m per annum.

However, current funding for both the regional pilots and the programmes that fund local Housing First services, including the rough sleeping initiative, will end in March 2025, and funding allocations for 2025/26 are uncertain. This places the future of this important provision at real risk, with the possibility that thousands of vulnerable people are abandoned.

In the short-term the government must make it a priority to ensure that existing services have the funding necessary to continue for another year, to avoid a cliff-edge in support.

Looking to the future however, we are clear that a dedicated, multi-year, cross-departmental Housing First programme must be integrated into the forthcoming national homelessness strategy, to end homelessness for everyone. However, the success of the programme will rely in part on reforms to the housing and homelessness system and its funding more broadly.

We are asking for the government to allocate the estimated £150.3m per annum required to fund Housing First at scale, until the end of the next parliament, delivering funds to communities based on level of need. An adequate supply of one-bed homes for social rent will also be essential.

Housing First works: both as an effective approach to reducing homelessness and improving health and social care outcomes and a cost-effective intervention to reduce pressures on housing, health, social care, and criminal justice services. If we don’t commit to investing in Housing First as a well evidenced solution, we will fail to meet the needs of some of the most disadvantaged people in our society and to address the pressure that homelessness places on other public services.

Alex Smith is the Housing First Lead at Homeless Link, the national membership organisation for frontline homelessness services

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