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In Fairfax County, we are faced with trying to close the growing gap between housing costs and income. Over the past several years we have learned that the emergency shelter system is able to accommodate only a small fraction of the growing number of homeless families in need. Families are forced to live in other places unfit for human habitation or to move from place to place with their children, staying intermittently with friends and families. Our emergency shelters are unable to provide the intensive long-term assistance which homeless families require in order to stabilize their lives. While transitional housing programs do provide such assistance, families are more responsive to service interventions from a stable, permanent housing base.
Keys: Ending Family Homelessness by N.A.E.H.
“Housing first" - as defined by Beyond Shelter in Los Angeles, or rapid re-housing as it is also known, is an alternative to the current system of emergency shelter/transitional housing, which tends to prolong the length of time that families remain homeless. The methodology is premised on the belief that vulnerable and at-risk homeless families are more responsive to interventions and social services support after they are in their own housing, rather than while living in temporary/transitional facilities or housing programs. With permanent housing, these families can begin to regain the self-confidence and control over their lives they lost when they became homeless.
For over 20 years, the housing first methodology has proven to be a practical means to ending and preventing family homelessness. The methodology is currently being adapted by organizations such as Shelter House
Recognized as a dramatic new response to the problem of family homelessness, the housing first approach stresses the return of families to independent living as quickly as possible. Created as a time-limited relationship designed to empower participants and foster self-reliance, not engender dependence, the housing first methodology:
- provides crisis intervention to address immediate family needs, while simultaneously or soon thereafter assisting families to develop permanent housing and social service plans;
- helps homeless families move into affordable rental housing in residential neighborhoods as quickly as possible, most often with their own lease agreements;
- then provides six months to one year of individualized, community case management support "after the move" to help each family transition to stability.
The housing first approach provides a link between the emergency shelter/transitional housing systems that serve homeless families and the mainstream resources and services that can help them rebuild their lives in permanent housing, as members of a neighborhood and a community. In addition to assisting homeless families in general back into housing, the approach can offer an individualized and structured plan of action for alienated, dysfunctional and troubled families, while providing a responsive and caring support system.
The combination of housing relocation services and community case management enables homeless families to break the cycle of homelessness. The methodology facilitates long-term stability and provides formerly homeless families who are considered at risk of another episode of homelessness with the support and skill building necessary to remain in permanent housing.
View the
Implementation Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in the Fairfax - Falls Church
Community:
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