1. Building a homelessness strategy: international lessons Nicholas Pleace

2. Successful Strategies
Clear, simple goals
Establish a political consensus
Dedicated, ring-fenced resources
Coordinated, shared assessment
Prevention and evidence-based second tier services for complex needs
Recognising Housing

3. Targeted long-term homeless people Prevention
What can be done?
Finland, very extensive welfare and social housing systems, not much homelessness
But 45% of homeless people long-term, 2008
Targeted long-term homeless people
Prevention
Housing First and related service models
Halve long-term homelessness by 2011, eradicate by 2015.

4. What can be done?
Long-term homelessness fell in Finland by 26% between 2010 and 2014
Proportion of the homeless population who were long-term homeless fell from 45% in 2008 to 29% in 2014.
0.006% of the Finnish population living rough and in emergency shelters, 362 nationally, 2014
Finnish population is 5.48 million
Only EU member state to report falls in homelessness in 2014, homelessness is a functional zero

5. What can be done?
US Federal Strategy
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)
Heads of every Federal department
Opening Doors strategy

6. What can be done?
Prevent and end homelessness among Veterans in
Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in 2017.
Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in 2020.
Set a path to end all types of homelessness.

7. What can be done?
Prevention
Copied from England
Housing First
Critical Time Intervention
An array of floating and fixed site services, though trend is towards Housing First and similar models

8. What can be done?
31% drop in long-term (‘chronic’) homelessness between 2010 and 2015
Veteran homelessness dropped by 36%
Family homelessness by 15%
11% reduction in total homelessness in the USA since the Opening Doors Strategy was introduced.

9. Clear, simple goals
Initial Finnish Strategy had one objective
American Strategy has four
The goals are very straightforward
Easily measured
Finnish target to halve long-term homelessness by 2011

10. Finns worked to coordinate national government departments
Political consensus
Finns worked to coordinate national government departments
Then worked on the homelessness sector
Then got the municipalities (local authorities) to sign a letter of intent
Basic points of strategy
Agree to monitoring
Agree to devote resources

11. Political consensus USICH Built by the White House
Brought together department heads, effectively the Cabinet
Four times a year
And built an infrastructure to track outcomes, ensure service fidelity and review strategy
Funding with strings, around data etc.

12. Dedicated budgets
Clearly demarcated, dedicated budgets are put in place
Funding is sustained
Services are not in an annual cycle of bidding for funds
Less uncertainty
Easier to plan and predict

13. Coordinated assessment, referral and outcomes monitoring
Shared data is essential to being clear what is going on
Who is homeless, what do they need, where are they?
Needs to incorporate all services working with homeless people and use markers if possible
Monitor referrals, service delivery and outcomes

14. Coordinated assessment, referral and outcomes monitoring
Data sharing is longitudinal and continuous
Allows accurate information on long-term and recurrent homelessness
High need individuals can be found and targeted with support
Targets can be set, e.g. around long-term and repeated homelessness
Need to also estimate hidden homelessness and determine nature – gender and youth

15. Coordinated assessment, referral and outcomes monitoring
CHAIN in London
PASS in the Republic (Pathway Accommodation and Support System)
Danish national level administrative data and surveys of homeless people using services
Finnish annual data collection
US annual data collection and monitoring

16. Services
Prevention
But do not try to target
Blanket services which triage
Housing First and Critical Time Intervention, other well evidenced services
Targeted on high need groups only
Lower intensity, tenancy sustainment focused interventions for lower need groups

17. Services Emphasis on high intensity one to one support
Service user led models
Active engagement and a recovery orientation
Personalisation and co-production, not worker led or controlled
Housing led or Housing First
Harm reduction
That’s the way the evidence points

18. Housing
Recognition that affordable, adequate housing underpins everything
Does not matter how coordinated, how user-led, how well resourced the support is
Got to have places for people to live in
Social integration means ordinary housing, living an ordinary life in an ordinary place, with support as and if needed

19. The American Strategy
From years of practice and research, we have identified successful approaches to end homelessness. Evidence points to the role housing plays as an essential platform for human and community development. Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives—absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes, or reach one’s economic potential. Indeed, for many persons living in poverty, the lack of stable housing leads to costly cycling through crisis-driven systems like emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, detox centers, and jails. By the same token, stable housing provides an ideal platform for the delivery of health care and other social services focused on improving life outcomes for individuals and families. Researchers have focused on housing stability as an important ingredient for the success of children and youth in school. When children have a stable home, they are more likely to succeed socially, emotionally, and academically.
USICH (2015) Opening Doors: federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness 2015 Washington DC: USICH, p.7.

20. Centre for Housing Policy European Observatory on Homelessness
Thanks for listening
Nicholas Pleace
Centre for Housing Policy
European Observatory on Homelessness
Women’s Homelessness in Europe Network