Housing First is Not Enough

Abstract

This policy brief critically examines the Housing First turn in U.S. homeless policy. Housing First is a popular model of homeless services that rehouses people experiencing chronic homelessness without preconditions like sobriety, treatment, or employment. The Department of Housing and Urban Development promotes Housing First as an evidence-based practice that grantees should adopt. While I laud this as a step in the right direction, this paper identifies three shortcomings of Housing First that limit its ability to end chronic homelessness. I then discuss two supply-side interventions (i.e., tax credit expansion and integrated public housing) that can compensate for these shortcomings.