28 Simon Communities of Ireland Support is in place to maintain their housing, but of housing-led services. This work suggests that they are in a context in which their lived experience communal services can face management issues, and, crucially, the role of their own home, within centred on having a large group of people with which they exercise choice and control, is as severe mental illness and often problematic drug normalised as possible. and alcohol use living under what is (essentially) the same roof, albeit in their own flats or apartments. Scattered housing, which ensures that people Some work from Finland and Denmark has using a Pathways Housing First service are not reported lower success rates in communal located near one another and live in ordinary rented housing-led services for these reasons (Kettunen, housing, is central to the role of Pathways Housing 2012; Benjaminsen, 2013). First in promoting ontological security. Further, the Pathways Housing First model is posited on the However, the level of evidence on communal idea that ontological security produces gains in models of housing-led services is not yet extensive health, well-being and potentially economic and and direct comparisons between scattered housing social integration, which it is very difficult to secure and communal models of housing-led services are when someone lacks a home. relatively scarce. Four further points may also prove to be important in this debate: The original Pathways Housing First model is built around the assumption that if someone has a home l The mechanism by which scattered site their well-being will start to improve. From a housing-led services create ontological Pathways Housing First perspective, not only the security, i.e. normalising housing as far as immediate risks of homelessness are removed, but possible, does not seem to be a perfect one. the marginalisation and alienation from community, Results in respect of housing sustainment social supports from friends or family and from appear uniformly excellent, in that scattered economic activity, all of which are associated with site housing-led services across a range of chronic homelessness, will all start to be countries and welfare regimes all seem to counteracted because someone has an successfully house at least 80 per cent of the increasingly normalised life based around their own people who were formerly chronically home (Padgett, 2007; Tsemberis, 2010). homeless that they work with. Yet results on physical and mental health and social and Communal models of Housing First, which use a economic integration can be mixed. This said, it single building containing flats or apartments, or may take considerable time for ontological clusters of flats or apartments in one or more security to develop and, outside the USA, buildings, are criticised by advocates of the original evaluations of housing-led services that exceed Pathways Housing First service and other housing- one year in duration are currently rare (Busch led services that use scattered, ordinary, housing Geertsema, 2013). (Tsemberis, 2011; Busch-Geertsema, 2013). The l There are a minority of people who experience core of their criticism is that if people who are chronic homelessness for whom housing-led formerly chronically homeless are living next to one services using scattered housing do not another, rather than in the community, and are in an appear to work. This group is small, often less apartment block or block of flats that is physically than 10 per cent of the people experiencing separated from the community (and which may also chronic homelessness who are referred to a be physically, i.e. architecturally, distinct from other housing-led service using scattered housing housing) their housing situation and their life is not and sometimes a still smaller number. normalised. Rather than having the ontological However, previous research in Ireland found security delivered by their own home, they remain evidence that a small group of people distinct from normal citizens in normal housing, experiencing long term homelessness might because where they live is not the same and their prefer to live in communal settings (Pleace and neighbours are all people like themselves. Bretherton, 2013a). Advocates of housing-led services, including Pathways Housing First Added to this criticism is new research raising itself, have also suggested that a minority of questions about the efficacy of communal models people experiencing chronic homelessness
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