2019-01-06
By Jaiden Coonan*, Fremantle-Tangney Greens
The state government is preparing to release its draft report on its 10 year strategy to end homelessness in the new year. The draft policy will outline the state government’s plan to work with stakeholders to effectively implement a policy to reduce homelessness throughout Western Australia – one part of the draft policy is a program known as Housing First (HF).
HF has become a staple in many international responses to homelessness with the programme producing promising results, it recognises housing as a human right. However, it is not a means to an end, and rather a part solution to a robust and comprehensive response to ending an individual or family’s homelessness. HF programmes are best designed to support those who are experiencing chronic homelessness, that is due to much more than substance abuse issues or structural issues, and rather, an interconnected web of realistic and socially constructed issues that perpetuate and exacerbate homelessness.
What is homelessness?
Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick from Heriot-Watt University in the UK is a leading researcher into homelessness and housing exclusion, and in 2005 developed the ‘critical realist’ theory in order to explain homelessness. Critical realism understands homelessness as deriving from four areas; economic structures, housing structures, patriarchal and interpersonal structures and individual attributes.
Without delving into the academic definitions of these terms, critical realism best understands how poverty and the access individuals and families have to affordable housing, and economic advantages (welfare, jobs, etc.) can affect a persons social web, and their internal and external environments; the external being the concentration of poverty in areas, and the affect that the social grouping of poverty can have on the “internal”, i.e. family, and then right down to the individual and how these can affect their mental, physical and emotional health.
This understanding doesn’t totally explain the nature of homelessness. The factors listed above may outline the likelihood of a person’s pathway to exclusion from society, which can lead to chronic homelessness. The experience of homeless varies from person to person and is likely to differ by the statistical and cultural definitions designed by those in the public and academic spheres. But for this article’s sake, it is best to understand homelessness in two experiences; short-term and long-term.
The difference between the two populations was first noted by social researcher Dennis Culhane in the early 90s, who was conducting an ethnographic study of homeless shelters in Chicago and New York. What Culhane found in the study is that the majority of those boarding in homeless shelters experienced short-term homelessness, while a smaller proportion of individuals experienced long-term homelessness.
People generally experience five different pathways leading to homelessness, as observed by Australian researchers Chamberlain and Johnson, similar to the ‘critical realist’ position. These are housing crisis, family breakdown, substance abuse, mental health and youth to adult homelessness. With the last explanation being the leading cause of long-term homelessness as it encapsulates the other four through a socialisation process.
Youth to adult homelessness can lead to Multiple Exclusionary Homelessness which is defined by certain social processes like substance use, economic practices; like drug dealing, begging, etc. It is these factors that socialise other chronic homeless people together, exacerbating their situations and conditions.
To frame this in a West Australian context, using ABS statistics, the groups suffering short-term homelessness are generally categorised in; severely crowded dwellings, temporary lodgings/ boarding houses and staying temporarily with others. People experiencing long-term homelessness are generally categorised as; living in supported accommodation for the homeless and sleeping rough. The short-term category makes up 77% or 6,863, and long-term just 13% or 2,137. These are 2016 figures and they are likely to have varied since then; and could be much higher as many people are not counted, and some of those figures could fall within the short-term or long-term categories.
HF is best suited for those 2,137 West Australians who, for whatever reason, need a well-rounded holistic approach to improve their situations to live happily into the future.
What is housing first?
Pathways Housing First (PHF) is a program that was developed in New York during the 90s, by clinical psychologist Sam Tsemberis. It stemmed from step-up programmes that sought for homeless individuals with substance abuse problems to develop self reliance, and kick their substance abuse issues by a series of “steps”. Beginning from shelters, to leaving social groups and eventually being accommodated in their own space, which upon ending their habit, they would inherit the place once responsible. The ‘step-up’ programme while being favoured by many service providers in the US and Europe – due to its inherently liberal perspective that the issues pertaining to homelessness are based on the individual’s attributes alone – is now regarded as a short-sighted and ineffective program.
Tsemberis, in a 1999 study, used the PHF data-set as a comparative to step-up programmes. The results showed that over a 30-month period those participating in the PHF programme were 84.2% more likely to retain housing than those in a ‘step-up’ programme, where 59.6% remained housed over a two-year period. Various studies trialling HF have been released in journals from around the world, mainly in the US, Europe and the UK (and Australia too!). Most nations already include HF policy into their various homelessness initiatives, and if they haven’t already it is likely they will.
It is worth noting that the fidelity of the model varies due to country-based situations, hence the recognition of PHF and HF.
Currently in Western Australia the one group operating a HF response, in collaboration with other stakeholders including the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) from the University of Western Australia, is Ruah Community Services. Ruah and CSI have so far released two reports from the Perth HF initiative 50 Lives, 50 Homes.
In the second report it noted that as of 30 June 2018, 221 people had consented to join 50 Lives with 147 people housed in 109 homes, and by September, when the report was released, a further 10 people had been housed by the 50 Lives program – the majority of clients prior to joining the program were sleeping rough. 50 Lives, which has been operating since 2016, has an 88% housing retention rate with impressive reductions in clients presenting to emergency departments and dealing with the justice system.
Besides the rapid housing approach that is utilised by arranging an appropriate form of accomodation for those involved in the program, through the Housing Authority, 50 Lives also includes an After Hours Support Service (AHSS) to assist people with housing, health and psychosocial needs. The core concept of this integral support system is to keep people housed; in the second evaluation report the 50 Lives program quoted a 2013 report that found 50% of men who didn’t receive any support once housed were eventually evicted into homelessness.
The AHSS is part of the wraparound service provided by 50 Lives that seeks to keep participants housed in order to amend their personal situations independently, in a safe and supportive environment. The wraparound services help clients maintain their tenancy, manage finances, relationships, address substance use issues and other chronic ailments from years of living precariously – all in an independently driven environment.
One of the leading success stories of HF is the reduction in health and justice spending by housing long-term homeless people. However, while this is so, a 2015 Canadian study found that the savings in health and justice did not ‘pay’ for the program, but this should not be used to deter advocating for the program as it shows that it has the capacity to change the lives of vulnerable people.
Where to from here?
HF is favoured by the state government and the Minister for Communities Simone McGurk ‒ the Minister has publicly stated support in parliament and at a public event during Homeless Week 2018 ‒ this is promising news. The upcoming draft policy on homelessness has been conducted in an inclusive manner around the state and has sought input from many stakeholders as the state seeks to cooperate with all partners.
It is important that any homelessness strategy is all encompassing and seeks to fight the root causes of homelessness, and one of them is understanding homelessness itself. While HF works and should be advocated on all levels, it should not distract from the causes of homelessness that generally stem from childhood, within the family and society at large. Housing is a part solution in ending homelessness, but ‘home’less shouldn’t be thought of as ‘house’less as the majority of homeless are already housed.
A rethink of how to manage homelessness needs to come about as well. In Finland, groups are working to convert homeless shelters into self-contained apartments to work on giving people a sense of independence. A Danish study released in 2015 found that shelter use by younger people increased the likelihood of an individual experiencing long-term homelessness, something echoed in the Chamberlain and Johnson study through youth to adult homelessness and the socialisation process.
Alternatives to curb this trend are being developed in Perth already. Foyer Oxford in Leederville offers self-contained accomodation designed for youth participants to address their personal situations, with access to education facilities that will help them move into their own independent accomodation. 90% of those who left Foyer Oxford moved into long-term secure accomodation in 2015, according to Foyer’s website.
Home is much more than a house, and homeless goes much deeper than seeing somebody sitting on the street. So, like the root causes of homelessness being deep, the solutions should be deeper, and therefore a holistic policy rethink and response should occur to end the suffering of those already homeless, including the individuals and families who are at risk of homelessness every day.
*Jaiden Coonan is a Murdoch University student in his final year studying; International Politics, Policy and Asian Studies. He has been a policy research intern with Greens MLC for the East Metropolitan Region, the Honourable Tim Clifford. Since August 2018 Jaiden has been researching Housing First and Homelessness.
Header photo: Homeless youth under a railway bridge. Source: Wikimedia Commons