Do We Have the Knowledge to Address Homelessness?

The Housing First approach, which prioritizes providing people experiencing homelessness with permanent housing before providing other support services like addiction counseling, for example, has taken hold as the idealized response to addressing homelessness. In countries with diverse welfare states, housing markets, cultures, and levels of inequity, Housing First is widely endorsed and is celebrated as the solution to homelessness. In Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives, Deborah Padgett, Benjamin Henwood, and Sam Tsemberis outline a compelling and robust analysis of the influence of Housing First and why the approach is morally superior. Central to the book’s argument is that Housing First has achieved the remarkable success of creating a paradigm shift: not merely a successful program, Housing First has shaped how service systems respond to people experiencing homelessness internationally.