Blog – Day 2
My mind still lingering on the thought-provoking open-air theatre performance at Aan het Water, my stomach stuffed from a hearty Turkish breakfast, it was time for Day 2! A thin veil of fog hung over the sky scrapers of Rotterdam, as we came together for coffee and the key note speeches.
Inside an imposing former grain silo on the side of the Maas river, the day kicked off with an uplifting ‘musical breakfast’ from a brass and drum band. Samara opened the day by reminding us that the initial ambition of the Hub was to bring together the actors you need to harness the power of Housing First. Ten years on, and the Hub’s ambition was embodied perfectly by the 400 delegates working on Housing First in the four corners of Europe. Francesca Albanese from Crisis reminded everyone us of the two themes of the event – building bridges and prevention – and to seize this great opportunity to think about new innovation.
Melanie Schmit of Housing First Netherlands then opened a sequence of presentations of how Housing First has developed from the first Housing First pilot in Amsterdam in 2006 to Wonen Eerst – a systems approach – today. This latter approach is now being adopted by Dutch municipalities like Rotterdam and Den Bosch, but also through the work of social landlords such as Portaal. Their speeches brought us back to basics – just give them a key! But they were also a humbling reminder of the enormity and complexity of the task of getting a whole system to ensure the default solution to homeless people’s needs is a home, not a shelter.
Before you knew it, we were into the workshops, round 1. I joined the session on design-led approaches to systems change, in general with Dr. Jodi Sturge, then applied to Rotterdam, with Marit Lüschen. The session challenged us to think of the whole ecosystem required to make Housing First a systems approach, from people with lived experience to policy makers, but also housing landlords, social providers, and society at large. On the ground, in Rotterdam, this design approach often takes the form of action learning task forces. These groups use a four stage approach: identify challenges to the implementation of housing first (watch), then test some new approaches (go), evaluate (measure), and then integrate the learning (adjust).
After a nice chatty lunch, it was up to the Disco room for a fascinating discussion on how to use social housing to scale up housing first. We heard from actors from Bratislava, Gdansk, Brussels and Malta about how, with time and plenty of conviction, they’ve scaled up housing allocations to homeless people. There are no shortage of challenges, not least the huge competition for housing, and cultural differences between the housing and shelter sectors. But it’s reassuring to see very different places moving resolutely in the same direction.
Back to the hall, key note speeches time. First up, Rachel Barber, from Citi Bank Foundation, brought us back to building bridges, which felt appropriate in a city peppered with bridges of all sizes and shapes. Bridges between organisations and with funders, but also the bridge from pilot projects to permanent sustainable programmes. The most successful projects Citi Bank Foundation have supported, according to Rachel, brought together all the future partners together from the outset.
Second up was Matt Downey, Chief Executive (‘that’s cool’ said our host) of Crisis (‘ooh, not so cool’). But it wasn’t about him, it was about us, collectively because ‘The answer to ending homelessness are in this room’. No pressure. The good news is, whilst we face many obstacles, a lack of evidence isn’t one of them. Even Chat GPT will tell you that housing first should be at the heart of any plan to end homelessness. ‘But how do we get bigger?’ Matt asked. ‘How do we transform our energy and expertise into permanent societal change?’ The challenge is to look at why systems don’t change, because we know that contracts, buildings, staff, legal duties can all be obstacles to change. So yes, change is hard. ‘Are we prepared to be the people who make radical change happen? Of course our politicians – in Rotterdam, or the UK – will often commit to invest in old ways of working, like creating new shelter beds. But that comes from a positive place – compassion for street sleepers – and should be the starting point for a dialogue about how to do better. To put it more bluntly, as one MP once advised Matt, ‘when someone comes halfway towards you, don’t poke them in the eye’. Rather than criticising those who support and work in current services, we should seek to make those services redundant.
His conclusion sounded as much a call to arms as a challenge of our resound. ‘We will either be the Housing First generation, who design homelessness out for good. Or we can be the ‘nearly there’ generation that misses that opportunity.’ Then it was time to chew the fat with the people who are trying to fulfil that promise over a few drinks. Very nice too.
About the Author:
Ben Rickey, Housing First Coordinator, Housing Department, City of Paris