The Picture of Housing First

Homeless Link's Picture of Housing First in England research series, first published in 2017, outlines current provision and explores variation in delivery of the approach.

Key findings from 2020

The Picture of Housing First in England 2020 research reveals a remarkable growth in Housing First provision across the country - a tripling of the number of services since 2017 serving six times more people facing multiple disadvantage.

• There are Housing First services in every region of the country, but these are unevenly distributed. The South East has the greatest proportion of services (23%), followed by London (20%). However, the North West supports the highest number of people (453).
• On average, services support 6-20 people, but the range is very wide, from just 1 client to over 250.
• 71% of services have caseloads of 6 or less - an excellent sign of fidelity to the Housing First Principles.
• 81% of services use social housing for their residents. This has increased significantly since 2017, while use of private rented sector housing has decreased.
• 45% of services use accommodation from more than one source.

The research indicates that we have made huge strides in Housing First delivery over the last three years. If we can keep up the momentum of growth and efficacy over the next three, the achievement of our ambitions to provide this support for the 16,500 people who need it should be well within our reach.

The complete reports for 2020 and 2017 can be downloaded below.