It’s hard to beat addictions and recieve treatment for mental health issues if you don’t even have a place to sleep at night.
The Human Development Council will continue to implement a housing-first approach to homelessness with the help of some signficant federal funding announced earlier today. MP Rodney Weston announced that 1.2M in funding will be rolled out for the HDC over the next five years. He calls it a new approach to an old problem – but one which the evidence demonstrates is effective.
The idea behind housing first is to move people who are homeless out of shelters and into permanent housing, then treating the underlying issue.
According to a study by the national Mental Health Commission, 73% of people who were given housing first remained in stable housing, compaired to 32% who were housed in shelters.
