‘Housing first’ model better than shelters

As of January 2020, Hawaiʻi had an estimated 6,458 experiencing houselessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The conventional response by our state and county governments has been to direct houseless folks toward temporary shelters; to get them off the streets and—ideally—connected with services. Honolulu uses law enforcement sweeps of houseless encampments to, supposedly, accomplish this.

However, this tactic is more likely to disperse people experiencing houselessness into communities than it is to direct them to shelters and services. That’s because—in reality—shelters don’t meet the diverse needs of everyone seeking shelter.

Shelters are failing to meet people’s needs; is it any wonder that people continue to resist entering them?

If we want to solve houselessness, we need to look beyond the stop-gap shelter model toward a “housing first” model that guarantees housing to people as a human right.

Over the past 30 years, Finland has reduced its houseless population from approximately 20,000 people during the 1980s to about 4,000 people as of 2021. Finland accomplished this by making a conscious decision to shift from a shelter model to a housing first model, investing heavily to provide both stable, safe, clean homes and support services that address the unique needs of its housing insecure population.

Given Finland’s success with its housing first model, the Hawaiʻi Housing Affordability Coalition (HiHAC), a collection of housing advocates from across the state, sent a delegation to the 2022 International Social Housing Festival in Helsinki to learn more.

The Hawaiʻi delegation included policymakers, researchers, land trust representatives, tenants, and people who’ve experienced houselessness, participating in critical conversations around affordable housing with people from around the world to learn how to address what has become an international housing crisis.

A successful housing model:

• Guarantees the right to housing;

• Achieves affordability and sustainability in housing; and

• Recognizes that quality of housing is quality of living.