What is Housing First?

Housing First can be understood as the process of getting people into permanent supportive housing without preconditions and barriers to entry. It is a recovery-oriented approach to ending homelessness. Housing First provides independent and permanent housing to people experiencing long term, and reoccurring, homelessness offering client-centric wrap-around supports and services for as long as required.

As homelessness is recognised as a deeply set multifactorial and multidimensional issue, the Housing First approach prioritises immediate permanent housing as the cornerstone of homelessness intervention. Is a rights-based intervention rooted in the philosophy that all people deserve housing and that adequate housing is a precondition for recovery. In this regard, Housing First sees everyone as “housing ready” and aims to prevent rough sleeping while diverting people away from temporary forms of homeless accommodation.

Importantly, client engagement with support services is not a requirement to maintain accommodation. Rather, a client-centred approach assists people in sustaining their housing as they work towards recovery at their own pace. This support can include physical and mental health, education, employment, substance abuse and community connections, and is provided with a focus on improving health, wellbeing, housing stability and social support networks.