Focus Experience 41

ECdituiecsating Housing First
Lisbon
FOCUS

4 1EXPERIENCE

ACCESS TO HOUSING PROGRAMME
FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE

Summary organisations managing (Casas Primeiro), aimed at
the project rent the flats homeless people with mental
Housing First is an innovative to private proprietors on health problems, was terminated.
model of care for homeless the free rental market. This makes Lisbon a pioneer city
people that advocates that in in the application of the Housing
order to get off the streets, Beneficiaries are provided with First model, not only within
people must first have access support services 24 hours a day, Portugal, but also at a European
to individual, decent and 365 days a year. These services scale. Lisbon is currently running
permanent housing. In this must be jointly agreed between eight projects, with a total of
way, the model departs from the project’s technical team and 340 homes for homeless people
other approaches that consider the participant, respecting their with mental health, substance
access to housing as the last autonomy, needs and interests. abuse and other problems.
stage in a previous path of Support is provided both in the
recovery and social inclusion. dwelling and in other community City: Lisbon Linked
contexts, in order to ensure Country: L6CoiciNsttoofhsbIneotAobigthIrCntwnEndereooCetigEohnPmetsixroshanrsokeminse.tnrncitataAiniceuuntntecgtdtiggdeotiuvssCtensh,eei.aaitestyslse
The project is primarily aimed the maintenance and stability Portugal
at homeless people who are of the home, neighbourhood Inhabitants:
in a chronic street situation relations, connection to other 547.733
and who have already been social and health services,
subject to other interventions and community resources. Topics: Social
or referrals to different services welfare, Social
without success. They are This model of intervention inclusion
offered access to individual was born in New York in 1990.
and stable housing, integrated Lisbon City Council first began to
within the community, across implement it in 2014, after state
the different neighbourhoods funding for a similar initiative
of the city. With funding from
Lisbon City Council, the social.

Goals X Provide individual, stable and X Offer a respectful and
decent housing for homeless specialised model of care that
X Address the reality of people in situations of extreme fosters the empowerment,
homelessness from a human poverty and vulnerability. autonomy and well-
rights perspective. being of homeless people,
and their involvement
BEFORE within the community.

AFTER

© Skitterphoto

Context aimed at strengthening social binary gender. Most of them
inclusion and improving citizens’ (223) were between 36 and 55
Lisbon lies at the centre of a quality of life. years old, were of Portuguese
metropolitan region with around nationality (277), and had been
2.8 million inhabitants and an Official data from the Lisbon living on the streets for between
area of 100.05 km2. The city Homeless Planning and one and six months (147) or
has a resident population of Intervention Centre (from between 12 and 60 months
547,733 (5.2% of the country’s December 2020) reveals that, (137). In terms of the causes
population), and is divided at that date, there were 447 associated with homelessness,
into 24 administrative units homeless people in the city, alcohol or psychoactive substance
(parishes). The city’s strategic of whom 397 were men, 49 dependency (167) and mental
action plan (2012-2022) is women and 1 person of non- health problems (76) stood out.
marked by a series of objectives

Methodology

The project is led by Lisbon Access to housing is regulated receive, in a process of personal
City Council’s Department of by the acceptance of the rules empowerment that implies the
Social Rights, based on the of the project and by the signing recovery of hope for the future
Action Plan for Homeless People of a contract between the and the assumption of control
(2019-2023). Through a public beneficiary and the managing over their lives. The professional
tender process, the City selects entity. Should the person have team must practice acceptance
the social entities that will any kind of income (social of the person in their current
manage the project and provides benefits, pension, salary, etc.) situation, without demands or
funding. It is also responsible they contribute 30% of their requirements. To this end, risk
for ensuring overall coordination income to covering the housing- reduction and harm minimisation
and correct implementation, related costs (rent, electricity, strategies are articulated in
with the help of a municipal water, gas, communications). the case of active substance
technical team. The managing However, it is important to consumption or similar.
entities are responsible for note that lack of income is not
establishing the rental contracts a barrier to participation. Equally important is the work
for the housing (studios or one- related to inclusion within the
bedroom flats) and for providing The project ensures a specialised community, through which
direct care to the beneficiaries. follow up of the beneficiaries, access to existing services and
available 24 hours a day, 365 resources in the territory (leisure,
The beneficiaries are selected days a year (with a ratio of one health, shops, social services,
based on the identification work technical support person for etc.) is promoted. Although the
carried out by the technical every ten users). Individualised general rule is to protect the
teams of the project’s managing support is jointly defined privacy of the beneficiaries (by
entities in the street context. between the technical team not publicising that they are
This is done on the basis of the and the users, depending on participating in the project), the
criteria underlying the Housing their objectives and needs, managing entities may carry
First model: long-term homeless and is carried out both within out mediation processes with
people, who have previously been the residential and community neighbours if necessary. Further,
assisted by different services or contexts, at least once a week. efforts are made to distribute the
programmes without success housing across different areas
and who have not been able The technical intervention is of the city, in a bid to avoid the
to adhere to the interventions based on the recognition of formation of ghettos, foster
or structures proposed. the right of people to make community contact and favour a
decisions about their own lives progressive breaking away from
and about the services they their past situation on the streets.

BEFORE AFTER

Evaluation a sense of security, hygiene homeless people in terms of:
habits, the adoption of healthier access to housing, residential
In Lisbon, there are currently eating habits, improved quality stability, quality of life and
eight active Housing First of sleep, hope for the future integration into the community.
projects with a total of 340 and the stability to reorganise Thus, while this model of
dwellings inhabited by 310 their lives. Likewise, increased intervention is not conceived as
people (principally men between community integration has been a panacea for the complex reality
the ages of 35 and 69). documented, which has taken of homelessness, it undoubtedly
the form of the establishment of provides effective care for the
The success of the intervention is new social and neighbourhood most vulnerable people that find
evidenced by the fact that 90% relationships; access to themselves in this situation.
of the beneficiaries maintain training and/or employment
a stable housing situation, opportunities (enrolment in One of the greatest challenges
confirming the effectiveness the job centre in their area of the project is related to the
of the model in dealing with of residence, participation in complexity of the situations that
the most long-standing and professional training courses, can affect homeless people,
complex cases of homelessness. referrals to entities specialised and in which multiple problems
in finding employment, etc.); including those related to
Further, significant improvements and the recuperation of ties physical and mental health,
in participants’ health and quality with family members, their addictions and a lack of key social
of life have been observed. citizenship status and a sense ties, converge. Likewise, the
The fact of being in contact of belonging to the community. sustainability of the intervention
with primary social and health model is another significant
services on a more regular basis, All this is coherent with challenge, since it is an approach
has resulted in a decrease in international evidence that shows that requires longer time frames
emergency admissions, which are that the Housing First model to enable the lasting recovery
typically associated with more provides better outcomes than of the person in question.
critical situations. Participants conventional services aimed at
also experience improvements
in other aspects such as:

Fpurotuproesals

In terms of the future, work is
being done to develop a system
to evaluate the impact of the
programme as a whole, as well as
to strengthen the on-job training
of the technical teams involved
in the intervention. Similarly, a
mechanism is being devised to
incorporate private donations and
other complementary funding
mechanisms; to establish new
partnerships and strengthen
coordination between the services
and entities involved, with the
aim of generating an increasingly
integrated intervention.

Contact View the
experience in the
Organisation: Lisbon City Council Bank

Contact Person: Mr. Paulo Alexandre Silva Santos edcities.org
(Coordinator)

E-mail: [email protected]