Origin of Housing First
From USA to Europe
Housing First approach had his origin in USA in the 50s and ‘60s but it becomes famous in the 90s when Sam Tsemberis, considered his founder, starts in New York the programme Pathways to Housing based on the principle that the Home is a primary human right
Housing First changes completely the Staircase approach that is clearly insufficient to respond to Homelessness complexity because of his too rigid standard rules (one size fit)
The principles guiding HF are: comprehension of people need, unlimited and continued personal support; access to indipendent flats located in several part of the city (scattered site housing); separation between treatment and right to home; self determination of the subject in all choices to do; definition of a support programme shared between social services and beneficiary (recovery orientation); harm reduction
In Europe
A series of initiatives spread throughout Europe starting from 2006 and supported by the European PROGRESS program
“Discus Housing Firts” in Amsterdam, “ACT in Copenhagen”, “Turning Point Scotland” in Glasgow, “Casas Primeiro” in Lisbon, “Pilisi Forest Project” in Budapest represent the first five European cities to embrace the so-called Housing First model ” pure ”or that conceived by Sam Tsemberis. These cities are part of the European network “Housing First Europe”
The Conference held in Amsterdam in June 2013, in which Italy also participated with fio.PSD as a member of the Steering group,, was an opportunity to discuss and facilitate the comparison between the cities promoting HFE
Finally in Lisbon, on December 9th 2013, during the Ending Homelessness Conference, a group of scholars and experts from all over the world decided to expand the network and start the work of launching an international network on Housing First. Also on this occasion Italy and fio.PSD are present and are promoters of the process
In Italy
Housing First arrives in Italy in 2014 on the initiative of fio.PSD
The organic introduction in Italy of the principles and methods of Housing First was led by the Italian Federation of Organisms for Homeless Persons (fio.PSD) which initiated a process to accompany the testing of Housing First programs
The aim of the course is to spread a new culture for a sustainable and inclusive social living aimed at overcoming the problem of homelessness through innovative and experimental solutions that use the principles of Housing First
fio.PSD has in fact promoted the establishment of the Housing First Italy Network, established in March 2014 in Turin
Associations, social cooperatives, foundations, municipalities and public social services have joined, throughout the national territory. This is a network of public, private and private social entities (in most cases religious and private social organizations) that, for years engaged in their territories in the fight against extreme poverty, have decided to experiment with the Housing First approach by following a path of accompaniment and scientific supervision