1. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
First steps towards Housing First.
Possible implementation of the Housing First
approach in Hungary
Anna Balogi

2. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Hungarian context
Social services in general:
 Social benefits very insufficient
 No real housing benefit (inadequate, difficult to
access)
 Extremely low proportion of social housing units
 Unemployment (especially among undereducated
people)
 No guaranteed minimum income
 Result: lack of affordable housing for those in need

3. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Hungarian context
Homeless services
 Homelessness most often not seen as a housing
or poverty problem – criminalization
 „How do we end homelessness? By placing the
homeless in shelters” – increasing ban on public
sleeping
 Staircase model very widespread
 Dead-end staircase

4. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing first approach in practice
Governmental schemes:
 Housing support program 2005-2009
 2007-2009: Pilisi Forest Project
 2012-2013: „Back from the streets”
 from 2012 ongoing: ESF-funded projects (at
early stages)
Civil projects:
 2013: an initiative of The City is for All

5. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Pilisi Forest Project
 Original aim: clear the forest areas
 Implemented by 7 NGOs
 Social support
 Financial support – 240 000 HUF (960 euro) / user/ year
 Rent, renovation
 Utensils, furniture
 Travel costs
 Any other (medication, food, clothing, etc.)
 Duration: one year, could be prolonged

6. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing retention
11
2
7
32
53
5
19 19
2 2
7
1 1
6
19
4
18 17
15
64
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Number
of clients
type of housing
Chart1: Type of housing during and at the end of co-operation period

7. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Main results of the project
 Out of total 152, 118 people stayed in proper
housing during and 45 people (29,6%) until the
end the co-operation period
 Couples (greater financial and psychologial
stability), families with small children
 Employment status, stable income
 No severe addiction
 Motivation

8. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Strengths of the project
 Flexibility
 Tailored housing solutions
 „Real help” for rough sleepers
 Follow-up care
 Cooperation with other organizations
 Experiences gained, new skills learnt

9. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Challenges of the project
 Housing not sustainable without stable income
 Financial support rather low and short term
 No guideline nor training for support workers
 Support work carried out besides daily tasks of staff (not
enough time, not enough money)
 Lack of psychological and employment support
 Period too short for preparation and selection
 Difficulties in finding apartments, rental contracts
 No inner evaluation

10. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
„Back from the streets” initiative
 Funded by the ministry – „dealing with visible
homelessness”
 between 1 March 2012 and 15 January 2013 (after-care:
February – June 2013)
 18 projects (after-care: 15 projects)
 Primary target group: chronic homeless – rough sleepers
with complex needs
 Secondary target group: homeless service users able to
move on
 Principles: innovative, tailored services providing housing
for participants that support their social integration

11. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Services and figures
 enabling homeless service providers/institutions to host
target group – e.g. by ensuring more space and privacy
– 21 new places
 making low threshold beds available for primary target
group by providing other type of accommodation to
secondary target group
 tailored, complex services based on the cooperation with
a key worker (psychologist, addiction specialist, medical
check-up, dentist)
 Employment or preparation to be employed (in 5
projects)
 Renovation of 2 social housing units

12. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing retention (%)
primary
target group
secondary
target group total
rental 25,2 7,3 32,5
family reunion 1 0,7 1,7
workers' hostel 11,6 7,6 19,2
53,30%
homeless
services 27,5 3,3 30,8
institutions 2 1,3 3,3
rough sleeping 5,6 1 6,6
other 0,7 1 1,7
missing 1,7 2,5 4,2
total 75,3 24,7 100

13. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
„Back from the streets”
- an example
 Project for rough sleeping women in
Budapest
 Difficulties with finding apartments
 2x3 women sharing an apartment
 Individual apartments not affordable
 Community work seen as attribute (cooking
together, for ex.)
 Additional 2 women moved to workers’
hostel

14. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
„Back from the streets”
– an example 2
 Intensive care
 first weeks, several visits
 later, weekly visits
 Group work (self-help group, violence
against women self-esteem group)

15. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Strengths of the project
 Intensive and multidisciplinary approach
 Involvement of couples as well as flexible
housing solutions
 Housing-related expenses (furniture,
equipment, cleaning stuff)
 New relationships – other than homeless
people and homelessness services

16. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Challenges of the project
 Limited in time (8 months only)
 Long-term success completely dependent
on employment – 8 months was not
enough to secure that
 More time needed to build self-esteem and
break away from homeless friends and
services
 Real difficulty in finding affordable
apartments that provide a bill

17. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
From the forest to housing
– a special initiative
 Cooperation of The City is for All, local
municipality, Social Housing Reconstruction
Project, Red Cross and several NGOs
 Grassroot
 Tenants and volunteers
renovating 1 social housing unit
together

18. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Strengths of the project
 Real cooperation between various stake-holders
 Could serve as a model for other public
authorities
 Involvement of homeless beneficiaries as well as
homeless peers in reconstruction
 Good message: homeless people active and
willing to work and help others
 Sustainable – integrated into housing support
services

19. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Challenges of the project
 Very small scale
 Renovation costs and workforce provided by
NGOs and their volunteers
 Housing allowance much less than in other
projects
 Two people needed to be able to cover own
costs
 No official intensive floating support

20. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Conclusions
 Housing or employment first? A general
dilemma of social workers
 No housing without employment in the long-term
 Insufficient social and housing benefits
 Lack of financial sustainability
 Duration of projects is too short (8-12 months)
 No support after project ends (financial or mental)
 Cannot be mainstreamed into „normal” housing
support as that is very insufficient

21. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Conclusions 2
 Target group: often not the most vulnerable;
priority given to those „most likely” to succeed
 Couples and small groups
 Those with less severe addiction/health problems
 Those with an income
 Those motivated (and likely) to find work
 In several cases to those already using services –
rough sleepers can access the beds thus freed in
services (maybe modified to low-threshold)

22. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Conclusions 3
 Staircase approach is still mainstream
 Half of the Back from the street projects place people in services
or workers’ hostels
 Most support workers working with re-housed rough sleepers do
this job after their regular working hours in the staircase system
– attitudes cannot shift so fast
 Staircase system – indicators are less risky, especially when
funding comes from ESF…
 Housing First approach is slowly spreading
 Not part of mainstream policy
 Can any short-term project be considered housing first without
the element of sustainability?

23. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Thank you for your attention!
annabalogi@gmail.com