Since 2018, Lyon Metropolitan Area has been recognised as a region which is “accelerating its implementation of Housing First and its fight against homelessness.” With this in mind, it responded to a call for expressions of interest piloted by the State and DIHAL (France’s Interministerial delegation for accommodation and access to housing). This ‘accelerated implementation’ is part of France’s national top-down public policy that explicitly refers to HF principles and “offers a transformation of the existing model. It aims to quickly and sustainably reorient homeless people from the streets or shelters to housing, and offers them adaptable, flexible, and multidisciplinary support.”
For the Lyon Metropolitan Area, this call for expressions of interest arrived at an opportune moment. As the staircase model had been widely criticised at local level for its ineffectiveness despite proactive partnerships, local stakeholders – and particularly housing associations and public bodies – had already been moving toward HF since 2016. This confluence of reflection and determination enabled Lyon to respond to the call for expressions of interest with a genuine aspiration to change the existing paradigm and thus reduce homelessness. However, it takes more than a declaration to turn aspiration into reality. A plan was needed that took a systemic approach to change, and dealt with shelter culture from the outset.
Authors: Martine Chanal and Nicolas Berut.
Published in the European Journal of Homelessness Volume 17, Issue 2.
Read the full article here.