Summary • There is growing international evidence that housing-led services are very effective in ending homelessness among people with high support needs. Housing-led services emphasise treating people who are homeless with high needs with respect, giving them choices and control over their lives and supporting them back into society through immediate provision of a settled home. This approach delivers much higher rates of housing sustainment among people who are long-term and repeatedly homeless with high support needs than some other homeless service models. This research explores the potential use of housing-led services in Ireland, focusing particularly on the views of people who are homeless and homelessness service providers. • Housing-led services do not exist in one form. Housing-led approaches are best described as a group of services that follow a common ‘housing-led’ philosophy centred on maximising choice, promoting independence and harm reduction, within a framework designed to provide a sustainable exit from homelessness for vulnerable people who require support. Success in ending homelessness appears linked to fidelity with this common philosophy. • The housing-led philosophy was viewed positively by people who were homeless and service providers. Several elements of the philosophy were widely regarded by service providers, including Simon Communities, as reflecting already current practice in homelessness services in Ireland. The most commonly recognised form of housing-led services among service providers was the Pathways ‘Housing First’ service from the USA. However, while housing-led philosophy was widely supported and sometimes reflected current practice in services, working examples of housing-led services were not widespread. • The harm reduction approach to drug and alcohol use, which is integral to housing-led services, was widely seen as more effective than services requiring abstinence from people who are homeless, both by people who are homeless and by service providers. • Housing-led services offering ongoing support were viewed positively by people who were homeless. • It was widely believed that there was an ongoing role for communal supported housing for some people who were homeless who had very high support needs and sustained experience of institutional living and a preference not to live alone. • There were concerns that people who were homeless might be isolated and bored and living in a situation of sustained worklessness if they were settled into scattered ordinary housing by some forms of housing-led service. • Most forms of housing-led services require a sufficient supply of affordable and adequate housing to operate. Almost every respondent for this research reported that there was not a sufficient supply of adequate and affordable housing in Ireland. • Housing-led services require joint working with health, mental health, drug and alcohol, social work and other services. Many services had been cut and were difficult to access, causing worries that housing-led services might not function well. • Concerns existed that policy attention was overly focused on housing-led services. Some respondents reported that other forms of homelessness were not receiving enough attention. • There were some concerns that successful housing-led models, such as the Pathways approach, would be ‘watered down’ in Ireland and not given the same resources used by effective housing-led services elsewhere. 2
Finding the Way Home
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