Is Housing First the answer?

Second Step’s Chief Executive Aileen Edwards was interviewed about a new Housing First pilot in Bristol on the BBC’s regional news programme Points West recently.

Aileen explains the concept of Housing First which is being used successfully to tackle homelessness in countries such as Finland, France and Canada.

Run by Golden Key the idea of Housing First is to offer people with a history of homelessness and other complex needs a home unconditionally. Housing First workers then support tenants to find solutions to the problems they’re facing.

Often mainstream services are not equipped to support people with complex needs and as a result often end up refusing people housing and in effect putting it last. Aileen explains that by seeing housing as a right and giving people the housing they need, it can then be used as a stable platform from which we can help address people’s problems.

Use this link to watch the interview in full: https://youtu.be/M50BNEMKunI