Housing programs and case management for reducing homelessness and increasing residential stability for homeless people

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) states that everyone has a right to housing. Yet according to the UNHCR there are approximately 100 million homeless people worldwide. Homelessness has many negative detrimental consequences on an individual as well as on a societal level. The condition of homeless seriously affects well-being and health in general and may contribute to mental illness in particular. Once homeless, people tend to be deprived of economic, social and psychological resources that are necessary in order to get a new accommodation. If this happens the resources of some clients may be too poor and few to prevent future evictions. Case management is a collaborative process, including assessment, planning, facilitation and advocacy for options and services, intended to make sure that the client’s needs are met. Intensive case management, including assertive community treatment, is intended to ensure that the client receives sufficient services, support and treatment when and where it is needed. In this way intensive case management (case load <1:15, 24-7 availability, and the combined competence of a multidisciplinary team), may help homeless people to obtain accommodation, and once housed avoid eviction. Housing programs are more or less based on housing philosophies. According to one philosophy stable and independent housing is needed for the client to become treatment ready. Housing should neither be contingent on sobriety nor on treatment compliance, but only on rules that apply for ordinary tenants. In other words housing is parallel to and not integrated with treatment, or with other services. An alternative philosophy is based on the assumption that some clients (possibly those with a bio-chemical dependence on drugs) may need a transitional period of sobriety and treatment compliance, before they can live independently in their own apartments. Without this transitional phase the assumption is that they will soon face eviction