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Nowy Portal Najpierw Mieszkanie
Zapraszamy na najpierwmieszkanie.org.pl. To portal poświęcony wartościom, systemom i programom Najpierw Mieszkanie. Portal Najpierw Mieszkanie jest prowadzony przez Fundację Najpierw Mieszkanie Polska przez osoby, które stworzyły i prowadziły stronę czynajpierwmieszkanie.pl., która niniejszym staje się stroną archiwalną. Dziękujemy, że byliście z nami tutaj i czekamy na Was w nowym miejscu!
Policy Poland
Summary of research results of “Housing First – Evidence based Advocacy” Project
Quantitative Study of dual diagnosis among chronically homeless users of services for the homeless in Warsaw:
Within two years, 333 chronically homeless men with dual diagnosis of mental disorders and substance dependency (mostly alcohol) were admitted to services for the homeless in Warsaw: shelters, specialist shelters, medical and advisory posts.
The above data had to be collected from each service separately. There is no data collection system in town which allows for production of basic indicators of homelessness like flow, prevalence and distribution of basic characteristics like length of homelessness, health condition and migration between services.
Case studies of institutional pathways of people who meet the profile of a Housing First client:
Within three months only, 36 chronically homeless men were admitted to one shelter. They have been homeless for eleven years on average and according to social worker and psychologist’s insight they suffered from dual diagnosis. Seven people in the same condition were located by a project researcher in one district of Warsaw. There are about 20 such shelters and 18 districts in Warsaw.
Homelessness of 17 people whose cases were chosen for in-depth research on institutional pathways, lasted seven years on average. During this time they spent (on average) over two and a half year on the streets, over four years in unconventional buildings like gardening allotments and garbage, about two years in their friends’ or relatives’ places and about two years in insecure renting situations. They spent less than a year in services for the homeless.
During their homelessness they were treated by medical institutions (biggest number of days) (general and psychiatric hospitals, dependency treatments, disability status, etc.), labor integration (Employment Offices, private companies), social welfare (biggest number of interactions) (benefits, shelters, interviews) and guards of public order (Police, Courts and debt collectors). The least present, in fact ignorable, were housing services like supported apartments, facilitated access to social housing etc. They are still homeless.
Only a few institutions that had chronically homeless people among their clients were able to calculate the cost of treating them.
Chronic homelessness in national data on homelessness:
57% and 43% of adults counted as homeless in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy Count of 2013 declared being homeless for over 3 or over 5 years respectively.
According to the adopted definition, the chronically homeless in Poland, referred to as the “target group” for the purposes of the analysis, constitute 19% of the adults covered by the sociodemographic study (5,338 persons: 4,926 (23%) adult men and 412 (10%) adult women).
Both men and women from the target group, i.e. persons experiencing homelessness for more than three years and suffering from a disabling condition (addiction), differ from the homeless persons from the benchmark groups in terms of many features marking the potential clients of the “Housing First” programmes. These differences are not very considerable, but they are clear. In comparison with persons from the benchmark group, people from the target group:
have a housing situation which is more frequently non-institutionalised (non-inhabitable places, abandoned dwellings, allotments);
generate income mostly from non-formal sources (collecting things, begging, black work) and social welfare benefits, while at the same time declare a total absence of any income less frequently;
more often use low-threshold and short-term forms of assistance (clothes, meals);
have a more limited access to health services financed from the state budget;
have a disability status more often.
Solutions? Needed!
The programs which effectively and cost effectively address the needs of chronically homeless people with dual diagnosis have already been established and successfully implemented around the world. The clients of Housing First founded by Pathways to Housing stay in their homes and do not go back to the streets.
There are evidence based arguments above that such programs should be included in support system for the homeless in Warsaw and probably in Poland but in this case more research is necessary.
A step in the right direction is implementation of more housing led solutions like “We’ll make it” Program of Caritas Poland, Scattered Training Apartments Program of Camillian Mission of Social Assistance, harm reduction programs and social rental agencies as facilitators of bigger access to housing for disadvantaged groups.
Nightshelters shelters and institutions which use forced sobriety as condition for abode, help survive the next day of the chronically homeless person who suffers from mental disorders but they fail to support sustainable exit from homelessness.
Projekt realizowany przez lidera Fundację Ius Medicinae oraz partnerów Kamiliańską Misję Pomocy Społecznej i Armię Zbawienia w Islandii w Programie Obywatele dla Demokracji finansowanym ze środków EOG
