Trainers' Directory - Housing First Europe

Abele Sangiorgio

fioPSD; Opera San Francesco

Abele has worked in schools and residential services for adolescents for almost 10 years. Since 2015, he has been a support worker and case manager in a Housing First service and has worked as a Housing First trainer since 2018. He contributes to promoting the Housing First approach in his country, addressing misconceptions and resistance to the model. Abele holds a degree in Psychological Sciences and Techniques and is a professional counsellor.

Country: Italy

Languages: EnglishItalian

Alena Vachnová

Nadacia DEDO/ Foundation DEDO

Alena works to end homelessness in Eastern Slovakia by promoting affordable rental housing and integrated social, health, and employment services. She initiated the Housing First Programme for Families in Košice in 2020, which is now expanding to Prešov. As a strategic leader at the DEDO Foundation, she actively advocates for systemic change, shifting approaches from managing homelessness to ending it. Alena has trained professionals, policymakers, and service providers on evidence-based approaches to homelessness. With a strong background in law and social work, she holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. Her goal is to ensure that housing is fully recognised as a human right in Slovakia.

vachnova@nadaciadedo.sk

Country: Slovakia

Languages: EnglishSlovak

Alex Smith

Homeless Link

Alex has worked with Homeless Link since 2019, leading on the Housing First England project. Alex Supports Housing First teams across the UK through training, good practice guidance and communities of practice, as well as working across research, policy and campaigns to advocate for the scaling up of Housing First in England. Alex completed the Train the Trainer Housing First training in 2019/2020 and has since developed and delivered training for Housing First practitioners and managers. Alex has a particular interest in fidelity to the Housing First principles, having developed the Staying on Track fidelity assurance framework in 2024.

alex.smith@homelesslink.org.uk

Country: UK

Languages: English

Amanda Bloxsome

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Amanda is an accomplished leader, who is a member of the Chartered Institute of Managers and educated to post graduate level. She is passionate about system change within homelessness and housing systems and have the drive to be able to influence change in these areas of delivery. Amanda has a proven track record in mobilising, operationalising and overseeing quality and best practice within homelessness and housing provision, both operationally and strategically.

Country: UK

Languages: English

Anke Jansen

Housing First Nederland

Anke Jansen is Co-founder of Housing First Nederland and has a carrier in consultancy, healthcare and human rights. The last 15 years, she started several Housing First projects and developed herself as an expert in ending homelessness on both national and local level with the principles of Housing First. She loves to make impact to create a human world for all.

anke@housingfirstnederland.nl

Country: Netherlands

Languages: DutchEnglish

Anna Gazda

Housing First Polish Association, St. Brother Albert Aid Society

Professional manager, consultant, trainer, auditor and coach. Former social worker. Co-works with public and non-government stakeholders. Experience in designing, implementing and managing social programmes and projects. In Housing First she delivers trainings, advocacy, expertise, fidelity review. Currently she is a leader of HF in Wroclaw (Poland) and member of the board of the Polish Housing First Association. She completed IPS (Individual Placement Support) Leadership Training. Main areas of work: supporting for HF implementation, searching for solutions, network services, planning and management: resources (inc. cooperation between sectors), knowledge and change.

anna.gazda.quale@gmail.com

Country: Poland

Languages: Polish

Arturo Coego

I’m a Social Worker with more than 7 years experience in the homeless sector in the UK and Spain, where I managed Housing First projects for Provivienda and Hogar Sí alliance. I believe that building a strong, supportive community is at the core of any successful endeavor.

armaco@provivienda.org

Languages: EnglishSpanish

Åsa Bäckström

Stockholm city mission

Åsa is a sociologist who has worked with social work and homelessness for almost 20 years in various sectors. She is now a development manager at Stockholm City Mission. A participant in cohort 4, she has since trained in Housing First for Sweden’s city missions, working mainly with municipalities in the start-up phase but also in other contexts. Housing first because it works!

asa.backstrom@stadsmissionen.se

Country: Sweden

Languages: EnglishSwedish

Cara Gibbons

Focus Ireland

Cara has worked with homeless families, single adults, and children across Focus Ireland’s housing services for over 20 years. She is now on the Practice Development team, focusing on policy development and supporting the design of a psychological environment based on Housing First and trauma-informed philosophies. Her training methodology draws on Freire’s approach, emphasising dialogue, critical thinking, and social justice. Cara delivers training on Housing First, trauma and addiction, harm reduction, and staff self-care. She holds an MA in Social Justice & Public Policy and a Postgraduate Certificate in Trauma Studies. Cara is currently the lead trainer on the Housing First Europe Hub’s Train-the-Trainer programme.

Cara.Gibbons@focusireland.ie

Country: Ireland

Languages: English

Caroline Simon

Belgian Federal Public Planning Service ‘Social Integration’

Caroline is a lawyer who has always wanted to use her legal background to serve the social sector and combat poverty. After gaining experience in both academia and the NGO sector, she joined the Belgian Federal Administration for Social Integration as a Housing First coordinator. She is thrilled to be part of the Train the Trainer programme and to help promote the Housing First model. She is also eager to engage with a diverse European network, which she believes will enrich collective efforts to end homelessness.

caroline.simon@mi-is.be

Country: Belgium

Languages: EnglishFrench

Christianna Fontouli

Coordination & Communications Assistant

Christianna supports collaboration among Hub members and partners, as well as training and communications activities to strengthen the Hub’s visibility and engagement. She previously worked in training management and quality assurance in the health sector and volunteered with a local non-profit supporting people experiencing homelessness.

intern@housingfirsteurope.eu

Languages: EnglishGreekItalian

Dagmara Lutoslawska

Housing First Berlin

Dagmara is a psychologist and has been working with people with mental illness for more than 10 years at low thresholds, with a focus on recovery and empowerment. In 2019, she started offering psychological support to homeless people at Berlin Zoo Station and subsequently at Housing First Berlin. Her focus is on the link to the health care system and the implementation of trauma-sensitive work in a multi-professional team. As a Housing First trainer, Dagmara shares her expertise on recovery and trauma.

Country: Germany

Languages: EnglishGerman

David Valouch

Platform for Social Housing

David has over 15 years of work with drug addicts, including as an outreach worker, frontline worker, community therapist, and parental counsellor. He also has 3 years experience working in a halfway house, and is now participating in change of Czech social system to reduce and end homelessness in the Czech Republic. In addition to his training in Housing First, David is also a trainer of motivational interviewing, Buddhist meditation, psychodrama and focusing.

Country: Czech Republic

Languages: CzechEnglishSlovak

Dieuwertje de Jong

LIMOR

Dieuwertje is currently an advisor on policy for social care and homelessness for the municipality of Groningen. Previously, she worked as a social worker and then as a Housing First team manager for five years. She first learned about Housing First in 2013 and was drawn to the concept of giving clients with the highest care needs a chance at housing directly from the streets. Observing the transition from ‘surviving mode’ to feeling safe and secure in a new home was a rewarding experience. She now also provides training for Housing First teams, equipping support workers with the tools to deliver high-fidelity support.

Country: Netherlands

Languages: DutchEnglish

Emeline Legrain

Observatoire wallon du sans abrisme – SPW IAS

Emeline has been involved for over ten years in the fight against homelessness and supporting people in very precarious situations. She is currently Housing First referent at the Observatoire Wallon du Sans-Abrisme (in the French part of Belgium). In this role, she analyses programmes, organises training, and participates in identifying homeless people to guarantee priority access to housing with appropriate support. As a former coordinator of the Housing First programme in Namur and a nurse at Relais Santé, she has always placed trust, individual skills, and a holistic approach at the heart of her work. She also contributes to publications and training to improve professional practices in the social sector.

emeline.legrain@spw.wallonie.be

Country: Belgium

Languages: French

Emine Özkan

Neunerhaus – Hilfe für obdachlose Menschen

Emine Özkan is programme manager of WOHNSCHIRM HOUSING FIRST and director of Housing First Austria. She is a certified Housing First Trainer and looks back on seven years in social services provided for people affected by homelessness, including as head of the Housing First program at the Viennese NGO neunerhaus. Emine represents the Housing First approach at international conferences and meetings. She is committed to discussing challenges, reflecting experiences, and creating new ideas for implementing Housing First.

Country: Austria

Languages: EnglishGermanTurkish

Emma Byrne

Find your Trainer!

We don’t have any certified trainer from this country yet, or our certified trainers from this country haven’t allowed us to be displayed on the Hub website. If you are looking for a trainer in this country, please contact intern@housingfirsteurope.eu.

Francesca Albanese

Francesca is the the Executive Director of Policy & Social Change at Crisis UK where she has worked since 2016. She is also an editorial panel member at Thinkhouse. Prior to Crisis Francesca worked at Homeless Link and Shelter.

Freek Spinnewijn

Freek is the Director of FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless). He guides FEANTSA’s strategic development and as its overall management day-to-day.

Geert De Bolle

Housing First Lab

“Housing First is about dignity. By offering people back a home that is truly theirs, you give them freedom, autonomy, life chances, and happiness,” says Geert. He has been the Dutch coordinator of the Housing First Lab since 2018. Geert lives in Kortrijk, is married, and has three grown-up children. A trained social worker, he spent 15 years working for the local OCMW, responsible for the reception and guidance of people experiencing homelessness, where he first encountered the Housing First approach. He later studied social work at Ghent University.

Country: Belgium

Languages: DutchEnglish

Giuseppe Dardes

fio.PSD (Italian Federation of Bodies for the Homeless))

Giuseppe has been working as a trainer and consultant in the non-profit sector for 25 years. Since 2018, he has been coordinator of HF, the Italian Housing First community, at fio.PSD. In this role, he designs and leads training courses, initiates communities of practice, develops coaching pathways, and promotes Housing First as a guide for systemic change in homelessness services. He participated in the first Train the Trainer Housing First course in 2018 and has since curated the training of coordinators and programme workers across Italy. He sees community work and proximity as central to HF development.

giuseppe.dardes@fiopsd.org

Country: Italy

Languages: EnglishItalian

Gustaf Henriksson

City of Gothenburg

With 20 years of experience working with the homeless, the last ten of which were in Housing First, Gustaf focuses his training on changing the way people think about homelessness and the work around it. He also has extensive experience in leading the daily work within a Housing First organisation. His focus in his work is on seeing the healthy in people and conveying hope that change is possible.

gustafhson@gmail.com

Country: Sweden

Languages: EnglishSwedish

Herbie Cooper

Crisis UK

Herbie completed her Train the Trainer course in Cohort 4 while working as manager of a Housing First team in Newcastle. She helped set up the team from scratch, including delivering extensive training and influencing practice. Learning and reflection are important parts of their model, and she delivers a lot of informal training. Before working in Housing First, Herbie worked in a youth participation project, which also shaped her training style.

herbie.cooper@crisis.org.uk

Country: UK

Languages: English

Jana Hájková

Heimstaden Czech s.r.o.

Jana manages the S NÁMI DOMŮ project (WITH US HOME program), which has been operating since 2018 and meets all the conditions of Housing First for Youth. As part of the programme, she oversees the provision of housing for children leaving children’s homes and foster families, supporting their integration into society.

Country: Czech Republic

Languages: CzechEnglish

Jo Prestidge

Homeless Link

Jo is the Head of National Practice Development at Homeless Link and lead of Housing First England since 2016 and support Housing First across the country, working with local government and service providers to develop new services and oversee a programme of policy influencing, research and practice development. Jo is an experienced trainer, facilitator, and public speaker with several years’ experience of working directly with people with multiple and complex needs including people entrenched in street homelessness. In addition to being a Housing First Trainer, Jo was trained as a consultant in the system-psychodynamics approach to organisational development at the renowned Tavistock Clinic.

Country: UK

Languages: English

Josep Agustí Feliu

Sant Joan de Déu

Josep has 10 years of experience working in the social sector as a Social Educator. He began his career working with people with disabilities and children in care. Since 2016, he has been working with the Housing First paradigm in Lleida. Josep strongly believes in this approach and is confident that it can be adapted to meet the needs of each city. We can do it!

Country: Spain

Languages: CatalanSpanish

Juha Kahila

Y-Säätiö/Y-Foundation

Juha has been working for 10 years in the field of homelessness. He started as a frontline support worker in 2010 for the Finnish Youth housing association services (NALPA) before becoming Housing First service manager and then CEO of NALPA. He joined Y-Säätiö in 2018 as coordinator for the National Housing First Development Network and became the Lead Coordinator in 2020 and is currently head of international affairs at Y-Säätiö. As part of his role at the Network, Juha organises training courses at national level, and is working on developing the Housing First model together with dozens of NGO’s and cities.

Country: Finland

Languages: EnglishFinnish

Julia Wygnańska

Housing First Poland Foundation

Julia’s engagement in homelessness began with research for the Municipality of Warsaw during her Sociology studies at the University of Warsaw before becoming an independent researcher for the European Observatory on Homelessness (FEANTSA). She later focused on evaluating housing-led programs through in-depth interviews with people experiencing homelessness. Since 2019, she has been a leader of the Housing First Poland Foundation. Julia currently provides fidelity consultation for teams developing their programs according to HF principles. She is also a social integration therapist and motivational interviewing practitioner, working as a support worker for people experiencing homelessness in Warsaw.

Country: Poland

Languages: EnglishPolish

Kārlis Lakševics

University of Latvia; Green Liberty

Kārlis is a researcher, consultant and learning facilitator in housing and environmental fields. He was the researcher-evaluator of the Housing First pilot project in Latvia and has led several multi-stakeholder design workshops on Housing First and social worker trainings. In the Hub, he was part of the TTT Cohort 5. While primarily a researcher, he has rich experience in leading formal and informal, face-to-face and online workshops and trainings spanning from policy to skills development. He draws his content and methods from rigorous policy and academic literature analysis, critical pedagogy, embodied learning, and design anthropology.

karlis.laksevics@lu.lv

Country: Latvia

Languages: EnglishLatvian

Kate Polson

Kate is the CEO of Rock Trust, a youth homelessness charity in Scotland, and Chair of A Way Home Scotland. Rock Trust provides a range of housing and support services for young people, including Housing First for Youth and is committed to working in partnership with others and sharing learning.

Kjell Larsson

Kjell Larsson has been working as a Development director on strategic level at City mission Gothenburg and nationally for Swedish City missions since 2008, with focus on housing and homelessness. He has been working as an executive in the social field for almost 30 years. He is also in charge of the National Swedish Housing first HUB.

Laura Fritz

Partnership & Project Officer

Laura joined the Housing First Europe Hub as Partnership & Project Officer. In this role, she supports partnership engagement, coordinates key projects, and helps facilitate training and knowledge exchange across the network. She is passionate about Housing First and committed to advancing solutions to end homelessness in Europe.

laura.fritz@feantsa.org

Languages: EnglishGerman

Leah Watkins

Housing Choices WA

Leah has over 30 years of experience in the homelessness and housing sector ranging from frontline outreach to managing services and coordinating interagency collaboration projects. She also spent 10 years working as a consultant undertaking evaluations, service model designs and action research. She was one of the first Australian participants to the Housing First Train-the-Trainer and co-authored the Housing First Principles for Australia which were endorsed by Homelessness Australia in 2020. From this, she helped design and deliver the Housing First train the trainer course for Australia and continues to deliver Housing First training both in person and online. Leah’s superpower is delivering online training that is interactive and highly participatory.

leah.watkins@hcau.org.au

Country: Australia

Languages: English

Magdalena Syrówka

Przyszłość jest dziś

Magdalena is a therapist, psychologist, sexual educator, and mediator. She worked as a frontline support worker and then as head of the Housing First implementation team in Warsaw. She both provided support on a daily basis and in crisis situations for tenants with ACT approach and organised coordination of the stakeholders. As a psych traumatologist she also provides support in a field of sexual education and leadership in family based on Jesper Juul’s values. Her core is nonviolent communication, personal responsibility, and respect for the integrity of the individual.

Country: Poland

Languages: EnglishPolish

Margherita Neri

Cooperativa Sociale Piazza Grande

Margherita has been working for 10 years in services aimed at homeless people within third sector organisations. She has always been passionate about the issue of the right to housing and for this reason she has coordinated and worked in the Housing First programme managed by the Piazza Grande Social Cooperative. In the Cooperative she has covered various roles of coordination of socio-educational projects and is currently vice president. Margherita collaborates with Fio.PSD in the context of sector specific operators training, the training focusing especially on Housing First projects, social and health integration, and community work.

Country: Italy

Languages: ItalianSpanish

Maria Degerman

Y-Foundation

Maria has started working with clients. Substance abuse, mental health, social problems and homelessness are familiar themes to her from that time. She has also designed services for these client groups and acted as Programme Manager for the Helsinki region of the programme to reduce long-term homelessness. Currently, Maria works at the Y-Foundation, where she has been for the last eleven years in various positions. She is currently working in the Housing First Network Developers and her tasks include the dissemination and mainstreaming of Housing First work, for example through trainings.

maria.degerman@ysaatio.fi

Country: Finland

Languages: EnglishFinnish

Marlene Panzenböck

Neunerhaus – Hilfe für obdachlose Menschen

Marlene is a project manager and team leader at neunerhaus Housing First in Vienna and a lecturer for Housing First at the Vienna University of Applied Sciences. Marlene previously worked as a social worker with young refugees and in the education sector.

Country: Austria

Languages: EnglishGermanSpanish

Matilde Revelli

Programme and Communication Assistant, Housing First Europe Hub

Matilde is a recent graduate of KU Leuven University (Belgium), where she completed a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development. Despite having a background in international relations and political science, she has always had an interest in sustainability and especially social sustainability, which she investigated for her Master thesis. Her research focused on how NGO coalitions pursue social sustainability by advocating for long-term housing solutions to homelessness such as Housing First, with the Hub as case-study. Her work is now centered on supporting the two Coordinators and the Head of Communication in the daily management of the network. Languages: Italian, English, French Contact Matilde: intern@housingfirsteurope.eu

intern@housingfirsteurope.eu

Country: EuropeItaly

Melanie Schmit

Melanie is the Director of Housing First Nederland and a member of the Executive Group of the Housing First Europe Hub. A driving force behind the Housing First movement since 2014, Melanie works to transform how societies respond to homelessness. She bridges practice, policy and lived experience, advocating a radical shift toward a home for all, fostering collective action from frontline workers to politicians.

Mercedes Hauviller

Admin & Finance Assistant

Mercedes is the Admin & Finance Officer at the Housing First Europe Hub. She streamlines invoicing and payment processing, maintains accurate financial records, oversees expense claims, and keeps day-to-day operations running smoothly. She also supports the logistical side of the Hub’s events.

mercedes.hauviller@housingfirsteurope.eu

Languages: EnglishFrenchItalianSpanish

Mia Saarela

Y-Säätiö

Mia is Coordinator for the National Housing First Development Network in Finland. She is passionate about eradicating homelessness and developing new ways of approaching housing-related issues. Mia has a backround in youth housing, social services & child protection services and is also experience in networking, providing training and a platform for learning about Housing First and housing related social work.

Country: Finland

Languages: EnglishFinnish

Michelle Major

Homeless Network Scotland

Michelle is an experienced trainer who completed the Train the Trainer course in 2021 as part of Cohort 4. She can deliver training modules and eLearning to councils, health and social care providers, housing associations, and third sector organisations in Scotland, covering topics such as an introduction to Housing First and its principles, championing Housing First, commissioning Housing First, tenancy sustainment, and coproduction and participation. Homeless Network Scotland can also provide bespoke training and consultancy on the topic, centred around direct experience, evidence, positive engagement, and systems-level change.

hello@homelessnetwork.scot

Country: Scotland

Languages: English

Miriam Sanabria

Hogar Sí

Miriam is a social educator and social worker. Since 2011, she has worked across many social sectors and areas, developing a range of skills, intervention strategies, and professional experiences. She currently works as a support worker on the public project “Building Home. Housing First” in Madrid. Miriam is deeply committed to Housing First and its principles, believing it is the way societies can end homelessness and confident that achieving this reality is possible.

Country: Spain

Languages: Spanish

Muriel Allart

Smes

Muriel is a Psychologist with 10 years of experience in Harm Reduction. She has been a Housing First Manager since 2013 – including ACT + ICM team management – and has rehoused more than 50 clients to date. As a Housing First trainer, Muriel shares her expertise in Harm Reduction, Recovery, Peer work, Crises management, and Violence.

Country: Belgium

Languages: French

Nadyah Abdel Salam

GIE La ville autrement – Est Metropole Habitat

Nadyah is a socio-urbanist and a task officer at GIE La Ville Autrement where she works on the deployment of partnership projects for the homeless in the metropolitan of Lyon within the framework of Housing First. In addition to being a Hoosing First trainer, Nadyah is also working on a thesis in sociology which deals with Housing First and the processes of institutional innovation in social housing (University of Nice – GREDEG).

Country: France

Languages: French

Nicolas Berut

Metropole de Lyon

For the last thirty years or so, Nicolas has been working more specifically on issues of local social development and housing policies. His research focuses on the emergence of fundamental rights in social work practices. He has spent a large part of his career in the field of social policy on accommodation and housing. Today, he is involved in rolling out the Housing First model in France and piloting the Metropole of Lyon’s Housing First policy.

nberut@grandlyon.com

Country: France

Languages: French

Pauline Portefaix

Fondation Abbé Pierre

Pauline works at the advocacy level on Housing First in France. In her role at Fondation Abbé Pierre, known for its expertise in evaluating public policy, she has conducted an evaluation of the national Housing First programme.

Country: France

Languages: EnglishFrench

Peter Brepoels

Steunpunt Mens en Samenleving

Peter started to work in youth and young adult care in the nineties, being focused on youth at risk of becoming homeless or young adults being homeless. At the time some of his older colleagues advised him to lower his expectations as to what could be achieved. He continued working, and 10 years later, caught himself being that older colleague telling the younger ones to ‘not put their hopes up too high’. After he discovered the Housing First approach, he learnt that his initial hopes of achieving positive outcomes for homeless youth could be realised, and became a Housing First trainer.

Country: Belgium

Languages: DutchEnglish

Peter-Jan Heylenbosch

Goodmen services – Freelancer

Peter-Jan started working in day shelters for people experiencing homelessness during his studies, also working in crisis and night shelters in Ghent. In 2012, he became a Housing First support worker for the public welfare of Ghent as part of the Belgian Housing First project funded by the government. He later assisted SAM VZW in Housing First training, sharing insights from daily practice. With a growing interest in Housing First, he completed the Hub’s Train-the-Trainer and the Outreach! course. He continues to work as a Housing First support worker in Ghent and delivers Housing First and Outreach! training across Flanders.

Country: Belgium

Languages: DutchEnglish

Pilvi Azeem

Y-Säätiö/Y-Foundation

Pilvi started working in the homelessness field in Scotland in 2005 as an assertive outreach worker. After returning to Finland, she joined the Helsinki Deaconess Institute in one of their newly opened Housing First units, providing supported living for long-term homeless people. She later helped establish a new Housing First community-based supported housing unit, ensuring workers were familiar with Housing First principles and that support work aligned with them. Pilvi is currently a project coordinator for the NEA project, which aims to end women’s homelessness using women-specific methods across eight multidisciplinary sub-projects.

Country: Finland

Languages: EnglishFinnish

Raphael Bouloudnine

WFX

Raphael is a psychiatrist with a degree in public health from NOVA university. After 10 years in Un chez soi d’abord (French Housing First), he’s worked in working first and develops training in recovery oriented practice. His year as an assistant visiting professor at Yale University as part of the Programme For Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) was an opportunity to visit several Housing First programmes in the US. He’s currently the national coordinator for Un chez soi d’abord France at the DIHAL.

Country: France

Languages: EnglishFrench

Rémi Dekoninck

Diogènes (Station Logement)/ Projet Lama

Rémi has 20 years of experience working in the social sector across a wide range of social and homeless services. He has worked as a social worker since 2000, in social housing, first-line social services from 2002 to 2005, family planning from 2005 to 2016, therapeutic communities from 2013 to 2018, as a social school teacher from 2016 to 2018, and in health services for drug addictions since 2018. He has worked as a Housing First worker since 2018 and has been a Housing First trainer since 2019.

Country: Belgium

Languages: French

Rick de Jong

Housing First Nederland

Rick has worked on the streets of Rotterdam for almost 20 years, both as a social worker and in management positions. He is currently the team leader of a multidisciplinary team in Rotterdam. Rick has been a Housing First trainer since 2022, designing and delivering training for landlords, municipalities, and NGOs.

rick@housingfirstnederland.nl

Country: Netherlands

Languages: DutchEnglish

Saija Turunen

Saija Turunen is the Head of Research at Y-Foundation, Finland, where she has worked since 2017. She studied and worked in the field of social research in the UK and taught research methods at Bangor University, North Wales, where she also received her PhD in 2001. Saija co-leads the knowledge development work cluster of the Housing First Europe Hub.

Samara Jones

Coordinator

Samara Jones has worked on homelessness and social justice issues both in Europe and Canada. She is based in Brussels and is the Coordinator of the Housing First Europe Hub.

samara.jones@housingfirsteurope.eu

Languages: DutchEnglishFrench

Sarah Edwards

Crisis

Sarah is currently a Team Leader of a London-wide Housing First Service at Crisis UK. She has over 10 years of experience working in the homelessness sector, predominantly in Housing First services. She is a keen advocate for systems change and for sharing learning and best practice.

Country: UK

Languages: English

Taina Hytönen

Programme Coordinator, Housing First Europe Hub

Taina works as the Manager of International Work at Y-Foundation in Finland. After studying social sciences at the University of Helsinki, she worked for the city of Helsinki developing services for people with addictions and mental health problems. Since 1999, she has worked at Y-Foundation, initially building networks with partner organisations to provide services for tenants. She has also coordinated the national development network on Housing First. In 2016, her main role has been as a Programme Coordinator for the Housing First Europe Hub, supporting the growth and development of Housing First across Europe.

taina.hytonen@housingfirsteurope.eu

Country: Finland

Thomas Lambrechts

Capuche asbl

Development of associative project for more than 20 years. Thomas has worked in the fields of culture, politics, sport/leisure and real estate. Investing 100% in HF4Y projects since 2021.

Country: Belgium

Languages: French

Tomáš Novotný

Spolek PORTAVITA

Tomáš began working in 2006 at the Halfway House Chamomile as a social worker and, from 2013, as an educator in a facility for children requiring immediate help within the same organisation, holding both roles simultaneously until 2017. He then worked as a social worker at the Asylum for Families with Children Hannah for three years. In 2020, Tomáš became a key social worker in the PORTAVITA Housing First for Adults project, where he continues to work. The supported persons include mainly single mothers with children as well as complete families, and a second Housing First for Adults project is now running.

Country: Czech Republic

Languages: Czech

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