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 was developed in reaction to costly and slow “treatment first” or “stairstep” programs. In these other 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 was developed in reaction to costly and slow “treatment first” or “stairstep” programs. In these other 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.
- Most of the evidence for the effectiveness of housing first comes from studies of the Pathways to Housing model.
Many programs that claim to use a Housing First approach are not totally faithful to the original Pathways to Housing model.
