What is Housing First? It’s a simple concept. It means putting people without homes into housing, first. The current homeless sheltering system does not operate this way. It was designed 30 years ago as a response to an emerging problem, and has resulted in a system of managing homelessness, rather than ending homelessness. In addition, there are unintentional adverse side effects associated with allowing families to live in temporary and emergency shelter for an average of 6 months in Massachusetts, and sometimes as long as 2 years. read more »
