With many ideas being put forth as to how best address the issue of homelessness, one prominent and popular one is the notion of a housing first solution, the idea that getting people into housing is the first step towards a long-term solution. It does seem to be the case that this strategy works for getting individuals off the streets, but it does not seem to solve the larger problem of homelessness in a community. This is borne out in Portland where housing first type policies are being tried, but the number of people living on the streets has remained fairly constant.
This may be due to a number of different reasons, but one thing is clear, housing first policy is not a tenable long-term solution, and must at a minimum be combined with other resources in order to achieve the desired effect of reducing homelessness across the community. These two sources provide a much-needed look at the shortcomings for these policies, and offer some suggestions for avenues of improvement that have the potential to make them much more effective.
Housing First and Homelessness, the Rhetoric and the Reality
Housing First for Homeless Persons With Active Addiction, Are We Overreaching?
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