The Optimal Response to Homelessness
Optimizing Canada’s current housing first approaches results in incremental reductions in the number of persons in homeless assistance with no impact on the rates of housing insecurity;
Prevention always outperforms housing first adaptations;
Optimal response to homelessness comes from a multipronged approach that incorporates prevention with housing first. - Fowler, Hovmand, Marcal, and Das (2019): “Solving Homelessness from a Complex Systems Perspective: Insights for Prevention Responses
Abe Oudshoorn (Western University) February 12, 2019, Is This the Smartest Way to End Homelessness? -”So what does this all mean? Designing a homeless prevention system that shifts resources from prevention to support of those individuals with the highest need priority can have an unintended consequence of ultimately increasing service need. Therefore, while prioritization assessments can support service decisions for managing those already homeless, the greatest investment payoff will come from investing in preventions. While making a shift towards prevention can mean delayed results versus just focusing on rapid rehousing of those who are chronically homeless, the long-term outcomes are better. Therefore, coordinated access systems should also be designed to direct those to supports who are at risk for housing loss rather than only supporting those already homeless.”
Mentor/Mentee Canada goes beyond immediate relief to facilitate a long-term solution to best help complex, chronic needs.