SYSTEMS CHANGE & ADVOCACY

In order to have the most impact – both in terms of good outcomes for people living in Housing First, and to help reduce and prevent homelessness, Housing First needs to be part of a housing-led response to homelessness.  

Homelessness is not an individual issue but a result of broader structural failures. Housing First works best when policies, funding, and services are aligned to provide long-term housing and support. Instead of treating homelessness as a temporary crisis, systems-wide Housing First focuses on prevention, integration of services, and long-term solutions.

This means shifting from fragmented, short-term interventions, like night shelters, conditional temporary accommodation, and other emergency responses to managing homelessness. Efforts from all levels of government, and from service providers, should work to establish a coordinated response where housing, healthcare, and social support work together.

This shift towards Housing First requires policy reforms, sustainable funding, and cross-sector collaboration to ensure Housing First is not just a project but a core part of national and local homelessness strategies. By embedding Housing First into mainstream housing and social policies, governments can create lasting solutions that move beyond managing homelessness to effectively ending it.

The key ingredients to making this change are:

• Key actors and motivated people
• A shift in working culture
• Structures designed to end and prevent homelessness (housing, policies, etc.)
• Stable and predictable funding
• Policies and political commitment
• Inclusion of different sectors: housing, social care, health, mental health, justice, youth welfare, etc.

Key Examples Systems Change

Finland

Over the past decade, several countries have adopted a Housing First approach to their homelessness policies. 

Finland is the leading example of where a Housing First approach has shifted the way that homelessness is addressed and prevented.  Finland has spent the past twenty years working to reduce homelessness.  Working across different levels of government, Finland’s Housing First approach is based on a the fundamental idea that everyone has the right to live in a home with the support that they need.  The evidence is clear: a strong social welfare system, coupled with a consistent investment in social housing, that prioritises allocating homes to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, led to over a decade of success in Finland.

Scotland

Scotland has shifted to a Housing First and rapid-rehousing approach following the Pathfinder programme which ran from 2019 to 2022. Working with local authorities (cities) and social care and health authorities, local plans were developed to move away from emergency responses to longer term solutions based on housing and support.  Scotland runs annual ‘check ups’ to support communities to adhere to the core principles of Housing First in their collaborative work to end and prevent homelessness.

Action on Systems Change

Research and Other Resources