• There is a need for care and caution when adopting housing-led services. It cannot be assumed that housing-led services will be more effective and less expensive to run than existing services. There are three reasons for this: • The most effective examples of housing-led services, the Pathways Housing First model and various housing led services used in Finland and the USA, are not low cost services. The cost offsets, from reductions in use of emergency accommodation, emergency medical services and contact with criminal justice services by people who are long-term homeless, that result from these services do significantly offset their running costs, but services like Pathways have relatively high running costs by EU standards. It is however, an error to assume that effective housing-led services are a ‘low cost’ option. • Many existing homelessness services in Ireland, such as those run by Simon Communities alongside other service providers, while they are not ‘housing-led’ in the sense of something like the Pathways model, are often close in philosophy and operation to housing-led models. This means that it cannot be assumed existing services are less effective than housing-led models. • Housing-led services, including those like the Pathways model with a strong evidence base showing success in sustainably ending long-term homelessness, are not a total solution to long-term homelessness and do not present themselves as such. There are some people who are long-term homeless whom these services are not able to work successfully with and housing-led services are often used in several forms, alongside other homelessness services, to deliver an integrated homelessness strategy. • Housing-led services require access to a sufficient supply of affordable, adequate and suitable housing in order to function well. A key reason for the success of some housing-led services, such as the Pathways approach, has been the role that these services take in securing a housing supply. Access to suitable affordable housing is essential if housing-led services are to work well. “ ” 3
Finding the Way Home
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