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Housing First emerged in New York City during the early 1990s as a groundbreaking approach to ending chronic homelessness. By 2003, it had gained national recognition as an evidence-based strategy, and between 2010 and 2016 it became the cornerstone of the federal government’s response to homelessness because decades of research consistently demonstrated that providing permanent housing first leads to greater housing stability, improved health outcomes, reduced chronic homelessness, and lower long-term public costs.
Housing First originated from a simple but transformative question: What do people experiencing homelessness say they need most to end their homelessness? The answer was clear—safe, stable, permanent housing…