Housing First Models

Pathways to Housing model (Full fidelity)

• The Pathways to Housing model centers these five principles:
  
  
  • Consumer choice: consumers (program participants) have choices during the housing search process and choose which supportive services to use (except case management).
    
    
  • Separation of housing and programs: participants get immediate access to housing without treatment or sobriety as prerequisites; and, housing & treatment are provided by different staffs.
    
    
  • Provide services to match participant identified needs: program provides or coordinates services at direction of the client.
    
    
  • Recovery oriented service philosophy: ongoing, positive, hopeful, affirming support.
    
    
  • Social community integration: the program supports engagement of tenants with the wider community.
    
    
• Housing is not free for tenants. Tenants pay 30% of their income (including Supplemental Security Income) toward rent (source).
   
• The Pathways model is a scattered site model- staff help participants find and lease an apartment on the private market. 
  
  
  • Participants choose who, if anyone, will live with them.
    
    
• The Pathways model should not evict into homelessness. If a participant needs to leave their apartment, program staff do all they can to help the participant find another place to live.
  
  
• Where appropriate, Pathways employs a harm reduction approach. 
  
  
  • Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use (National Harm Reduction Coalition)
    
    
• Program participants are required to meet with a case manager, and follow tenancy rules.

Medium to low fidelity housing first models:

• Low barrier housing where applicants should not be rejected from the program because of a substance use disorder, or having low/no credit, previous evictions, or a criminal record.
  
  
• Offer a variety of supportive services to help a person maintain their housing (such as employment support, health care, mediation with landlords or other tenants, and others). Tenants are encouraged but not required to use these services. 
  
  
• May be implemented through a scattered site model (people in the programs live in housing scattered across a city), or a single-site model (people in the program live in apartments in the same building). 
  
  
  • Some scattered site models may house tenants in buildings with only affordable housing, while others may offer tenants housing in market rate mixed income housing.
    
    
  • At single site housing first programs, services might be provided on site, or residents might travel off-site to access services. Some single site housing first programs may have residents who all have similar disabilities or different disabilities.