Finding the Way Home • Client-led services and/or approaches that maximised Some service providers had visited US housing-led services or choices and control for people who were homeless using been to conferences and been to events where Sam services. Tsemberis, the founder of the PHF approach had spoken. The fieldwork for this research also included consultation with • Harm reduction led approaches to drug and alcohol use, service providers working on the Housing First Demonstration rather than abstinence based approaches. Project (HFDP) in Dublin, which involves Stepping Stone with The research was not a complete examination of the opinions support from Business in the Community, Focus Ireland, Peter and views of all the homelessness service providers in Ireland McVerry Trust, National Drug Treatment Centre and Dublin (see Chapter 1). It may have been the case that there were Simon Community72. agencies and individuals who did not participate in this research who did not agree with how housing-led services Those service providers with detailed knowledge of both the viewed homeless people and how their needs should be met. theory and practice of housing-led services understood they For those service providers who did participate in the research, could exist in several forms. The HFDP in Dublin was however, many of the assumptions and approaches of housing- described as closely reflecting the PHF model from New York73 led services were thought to be closely mirrored by their and thus as a service focusing on people who were long-term existing practice. homeless and who had high support needs, i.e. what in the “ mestiiplnsnseds s,rtoitagnoslesebetpereixponldedttowiitho Uoruscnss-(eouse ovacesvrwa)sea‘oviderisqawthasowaeilfecalay opuilneidn74.otayfbetdnpl’essmiscemptheylilu,cfnoortehscrp.het2cideertempsrifehtreCpbeeddslrlguogiewihtiAvrSoeFhsttfsonteitccegpnstecgonixdernoaihtatreebhadrdoedeeneneleaeudopvildunRi Provision need to be dynamic and flexible... “ Thoerde oluauistgpsuppeerrtywnte PamultidssaliapsnanyhdcraaoriltppfcrieytatawchtsnaihkriooYwovNetfoudnnitkjelofpymiesivehrwp.red.ivnooriPsievciovrrpeSecivresfoledomyranoitatsralucitrapa medical team, that may be fine in America, and There was also a strong sense, as has also been reported among homelessness service providers in the UK70, that housing-led certainly it’s one of the things that can be done services did not represent a major ‘leap forward’. The core in an Irish context. But I think you need a arguments underpinning housing-led services in the US and broader range of approaches suitable to people’s elsewhere, i.e. that inflexible institutions with strict regimes do needs. So we have what we’ve called high not provide effective and lasting solutions to homelessness and support housing, but which would fit into what that a more human response is needed, were generally regarded you and others have called Communal Housing by service providers as an argument which had long been First, for people who are on the older end of concluded in Ireland. Service providers thought that the Irish things, 40s, 50s, 60s, some of whom would have homelessness sector, as they represented it, had long since backgrounds in the industrial schools...you’ve moved away from strict, institutionalised responses to guys who’ve been homeless for donkeys years homelessness. This meant that the kinds of homelessness services, which US or Finnish housing-led services were who’ve been successfully accommodated in designed to replace, had been replaced or were fading away in these small scale, high support houses...it is a Ireland, albeit that some bad practice still remained71. Indeed, place people can call home. some service providers thought that the more innovative Service Provider. homelessness service provision in Ireland was a step or two ahead of housing-led approaches. “ ..oyckutheuwessio gssupiportmenot nnysshation,,sitnttermsuoyfiubrirFetlgenliosiuociHegmraetsieeecdivrveorpynaduodlheoscuaooe.bt of housing people without preconditions and without requiring engagement in health or mental health or 70 Johnsen, S. and Teixeira, L. (2012) ‘”Doing it Already?”: Stakeholder Perceptions of Housing addiction, we are already “Housing First” in that First in the UK’ International Journal of Housing Policy 12, 2, pp. 183-203. sense. Pathways have a minimum requirement of 71 SeoegrMayoical, P.tudy oSfhHoimane,sSs. W2o0men)in Iormland (Hoemeaerss ‘Briuerfnngs1::Keoymendangs from adniniFW’yeioJhclesRs’neeWa21(ledrednaSkchpa:iB two visits with your key-worker per month and house Homelessness in Ireland) Dublin: School of Social Work and Social Policy and Children’s visits and I’d say we’re probably more lenient than rReesseeaarrcchh_paperre_.ohnte_:w/owmew._cadn.de_hhimderleensrneessesa_cn_iereltaen/d.spsdefts/pdf/Publications/arnchirssloc/itnw/pttneC they are in terms of sticking with them for long 72 http://www.homelessagency.ie/Dublin-Homeless-Action-Plan/Housing-First.aspx periods of time, and in terms of requiring people to 73 The HFDP uses an Intensive Case Management (ICM) mobile support team, but unlike the PHF do this, this and that…we’ve never done that. HFoLdseelrvnicNewleaske,sdeoees hapteempl.oy an ACT team, in this sense it might be seen as a form of2rtonCroYp,eim Service Provider. 74 PHF is targeted on people who are homeless with severe mental illness, see Chapter 2. 17
Finding the Way Home
To see the actual publication please follow the link above