Experiences from a large-scale Housing

First programme in Denmark

Lars Benjaminsen
The Danish National Center for Social Research

18-11-2014

Background for the program

First national count of homelessness week 6, February 2007.

5.300 homeless people, of which about 500 were rough sleepers

One in four homeless people was a young person under 30

Homelessness widely concentrated to people with complex support

needs 80 % have mental illness and/or substance abuse problems

Need to provide more permanent solutions than temporary

accommodation - avoid long and repeated shelter stays
The spread of Housing First in other countries - test whether Housing
First also works in a Danish context

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National Homelessness Strategy 20092013

Housing First as overall principle
Develop evidence based floating support methods - Assertive
Community Treatment and Intensive Case Management - in a
Danish context
Implement a mindshift away from staircase/housing ready
approach to Housing First
65 million Euro over 4 years
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The organization of the provision of

housing and support
Denmark has a large public housing sector 20 % of total housing
stock. million units in a population of 5,5 mill. people
(open to all through waiting lists regardless of income level)
Municipalities can allocate 1 in 4 vacancies in public housing to people
in acute housing need e.g. single mothers, handicapped, mentally ill,
homeless people
Local social services are anchored in municipalities - floating support is
mainly provided from municipalities.

TITEL

18-11-2014

Floating support programme

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
Multidisiplinary support team social support workers, nurse,
psychiatrist, addiction treatment specialist, social office worker,
job office worker
Intensive Case Management (ICM)
Case manager social and practical support and coordination of
use of other services
Critical Time Intervention (CTI)
Time-limited case management (9 months) social and practical
support and coordination of use of other services
TITEL

18-11-2014

Very positive results

Housing First works
Housing First works for most homeless
people 9 out of 10 who were housed
maintained their housing
We cannot predict in advance who will fail
About 1000 people were housed through
the programme
Independent scattered housing in ordinary
housing is better for most homeless people
Problems with congregate housing - often
conflicts amongst residents, noise, and an
environnement of addiction problems
making recovery difficult
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Mindshift and political commitment is

important
The mindshift to Housing First away from Housing readiness is
important to facilitate at all levels, and it is a continous
challenge
The scope of and barriers for this mindshift can only be
underestimated for instance in the housing allocation system.
Political commitment is crucial at all levels political anchoring
and commitment both at national and local level is important
as well of commitment in local administrations
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The follow up programme, 2014-2016

Spread the housing first model to more municipalities
More focus on training of social workers
More focus on implementation processes
Fidelity measurement
Manualisation of interventions
A specific youth programme adapting floating support methods
specifically to young homeless people

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Increasing number of homeless people

during the strategy period
Homelessness situation

Week 6,
2009

Week 6,
2011

Week 6,
2013

Street

506

426

595

Emergency night shelter

355

283

349

1.952

1.874

2.015

88

68

70

1.086

1.433

1.653

164

227

211

86

88

64

Institutional release, hospital

172

173

119

Other

589

718

744

Total

4.998

5.290

5.820

Homeless shelter
Hotel
Family/friends
Short term transitional
Institutional release, prison

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Smaller increase in strategy

municipalities
2009

2011

2013

% Change

Strategy municip.

3,572

3,663

3,780

+6

Non-strategy municip.

1.426

1.627

2.040

+43

Total

4.998

5.290

5.820

+16

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The increase happened in larger cities

City/area

2009

2013

Per cent
change

Copenhagen Metropol. Area

2428

3100

28

Aarhus

466

617

32

Rest of Denmark

2104

2103

Total

4998

5820

16

The increasing shortage of affordable housing in the cities is a main

reason for the increase

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Recommendations
Upscaling Housing First - It works for the large majority of homeless people
the group who cannot be housed is much smaller than we thought

Providing enough affordable housing for the programme

Provided high-intensive floating support following evidencebased methods for
those who need it.
Provide alternatives for the 10-15 % who need other solutions
Do not underestimate the need for a mindshift and how long and challenging a
process it is to implement - at all levels and amongst various local actors

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Further information about the Danish

programme
Lars Benjaminsen

lab@sfi.dk

The Danish National Center of Social Research

European Journal of Homelessness, Volume 7 (2):
Policy Review Up-date: Results from the Housing First based
Danish Homelessness Strategy

18-11-2014

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