No, Housing First is not a ‘failed’ model for homelessness, especially not in Boise
Homelessness is a complex problem. If homelessness is defined by a person not having housing, logic follows that housing is required to solve the problem.
But the heartbreaking fact is, there are those among us who carry burdens beyond our comprehension, who need more than housing in order to stay stably housed.
It’s about the order of the features of relief.
What providers have learned through years of hard-earned experience and wisdom is that treatment without housing does not work.
Telling people to get stable so they can get housed is like telling a starving person to go buy a new car and we will feed them.
Stability and structure are the keys followed closely by the establishment of trust in the building of relationships with professionals, including professionals with lived experience akin to the traumas experienced by those who are experiencing life without a home.
Housing First is the evidence-based approach focused on ending homelessness by orienting all solutions to begin with and prioritize housing.
Housing First has been resoundingly and unquestionably successful in communities across the country, including our own.
Research, project evaluations and program results consistently demonstrate that by starting with solving the problem of where people live first, individuals who were experiencing homeless are far more successful at remaining housed, engaging in services and having positive connections within their community.
Housing First works and, in Boise, we have seen its impact firsthand, which is why we, as partners in Our Path Home, are fully committed to furthering its success in Ada County and throughout the state.
One glowing local example is New Path Community Housing.
New Path provides a safe, stable home for 49 community residents who were previously experiencing chronic homelessness. It is a permanent supportive housing project — meaning that the residents who live there receive permanent rental assistance and engage in a variety of services located in the building, such as peer support, case management and counseling.
New Path uses a Housing First approach because the residents who now live there didn’t have to pass tests aimed at determining whether or not they were worthy of housing and whether housing is deserved. Instead, they were housed first — and results have been astonishing.
New Path will remain anchored in its Housing First approach because it is working. Residents who previously experienced chronic homelessness and who had difficulties maintaining housing without support, now have a home with the resources that they need to maintain it.
When residents can maintain stable housing, they experience a demonstrable change in their quality of life and engage actively in services, positively impacting our entire community. In independent evaluations, New Path’s approach to housing and services has saved the community more than $2 million by reducing costly ambulance, emergency room, police and correctional interactions the past two years alone.
New Path is Boise’s first permanent supportive housing project and remains one of our most innovative and successful local examples of exactly why Housing First works.
We will continue to implement this people-oriented, cost-effective, evidence-based approach as one of the options needed to end homelessness in Ada County.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 11:22 AM.