What is the"Housing First" Model?

The “Housing First” model offers an alternative to emergency shelter or transitional housing for homeless individuals. “Housing First” moves individuals directly from the streets or shelters into their own homes.  Individuals are offered extensive follow-up through case management services. The model is premised on research that proves that permanent supportive housing is the most effective and cost efficient service model for chronically homeless individuals.

Without a stable place to live and a support system to help them address underlying problems, most homeless people shift from one emergency system to the next – from the streets to shelters, to public hospitals, to psychiatric institutions and detox centers, and ultimately, back to the streets – in an endless cycle. (See story, Million Dollar Murray) The extremely high cost of this cycle of homelessness, in human and economic terms, can be seen in the lives of the men who come through the doors of Immaculate Conception Shelter.

National studies show that as permanent supportive housing is made available to chronically homeless individuals, the need for emergency shelter beds decreases. In addition, health improvements have been documented along with a significant decrease in tenants’ emergency room visits and hospital inpatient days. Tenants’ use of emergency detoxification services declines and there is an increase in the use of preventative health care services.

Immaculate Conception Shelter & Housing Corporation currently provides supportive housing services to approximately 125 previously homeless individuals who now live independently and hold their own apartment leases in “scattered site” apartments throughout the City of Hartford.  An additional 25 formerly homeless individuals are now residents in Casa de Francisco, a 50 Unit Supportive Housing Complex nestled in Hartford’s Frog Hollow Neighborhood.