History and Origins of Housing First
- Housing First was developed in New York City in the 1990s by Dr. Sam Tsemberis and the nonprofit Pathways to Housing.
- Housing First emerged from asking people experiencing homelessness what they needed and wanted to resolve their homelessness.
- A housing justice and empowerment model, Housing First provides housing to program participants and offers them services. Housing First emphasizes the right of all people to have access to housing regardless of the conditions of their life.
- At the time it was developed, the Housing First approach was a significant departure from “stair-step” housing programs. In treatment first or stair-step programs, a person experiencing homelessness had to graduate from a series of transitional housing programs, and/or achieve sobriety, to prove themself “housing ready” before they would be housed.
- Housing First emerged from asking people experiencing homelessness what they needed and wanted to resolve their homelessness.
- Many programs that claim to use a housing first approach are not totally faithful to the original Pathways to Housing model.
