Housing First

Housing First is an international model for housing and supporting people who have experienced long term and reoccurring homelessness and who face a range of complex challenges. It supports strategies to end homelessness and is a methodology for effectively assisting some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

The Housing First Principles for Australia have been developed to promote the implementation of Housing First Australia-wide.  This consistent and locally relevant set of principles, is intended to be used in the Australian context to train staff, and to design services with fidelity to Housing First.

There are eight main principles that Housing First follows. Browse through them below.

Principles

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Are you a homelessness practitioner?

Homelessness Australia is supporting advanced homelessness practitioners to become active Housing First trainers across Australia, through our new Train the Trainer program.

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Acknowledgements

The association of Homelessness Australia (HA) with the Housing First Europe Hub (HFEH) has been made possible through the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation (LMCF) in Melbourne. LMCF has funded the Council to Homeless Person’s in Victoria to support HA’s Associate Membership of the HFEH and the participation of advanced practitioners from around Australia in the HFEH Train the Trainer program to lead training of practitioners from across Australia.

These guidelines have been drafted by HF trainers Rosie Dodd (Launch Housing), Natasha Rodrigues (Micah Projects), Tamara Sequeira (Homelessness NSW) and Leah Watkins (Ruah Community Services). These organisations have provided significant in kind support to enable their employee’s participation. Ruah Community Services and the Sisters of St John of God have also directly funded Leah Watkin’s participation.

The guidelines were adopted by the HA Board on 5 March 2020.