Pathways to Housing is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 by Dr.

Sam Tsemberis Sam J. Tsemberis (born March 11, 1949 in Skoura, Greece) is a Greek Canadian clinical and community psychology practitioner, and the founder and executive director of Pathways to Housing, a Housing First program for individuals with serious ment ...

.McCarroll, Christina.
"Pathways to Housing the Homeless"

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

, May 1, 2002. It is the mission of Pathways to Housing to transform individual lives by ending homelessness and supporting recovery. The organization is the originator of the

Housing First Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy ...

model of addressing homelessnes
among
people with severe psychiatric disabilities and substance use disorders. In Los Angeles, California in 1988, the "Housing First" Program at Beyond Shelter was launched by Tanya Tull in response to a sharp increase in the number of homeless families with children. As an innovative model,

has been nationally successful at addressing homelessness largely due to its focus on consumer choice.Tsemberis, S., Gulcur, L. and Nakae, M. (2004). Housing first, consumer choice and harm reduction for homeless individuals with a dual diagnosis. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 4, p. 651-656. Consumers choose the neighborhoods they want to live in, how their apartments are furnished, and all other decisions regarding the use of their new homes. Consumers also determine the frequency, duration, and intensity of the support and treatment services they receive. Consumers feel secure knowing housing will be held for them during relapse, psychiatric crisis or short incarcerations. Most importantly though, consumers know they have a voice and often attend Tenant Advisory Council meetings, which provides a forum for input into the program and solicits ideas for changes to meet new needs. Using this consumer-driven approach, Pathways to Housing has achieved remarkable success in housing retention for its target population. In one federally funded longitudinal random assignment study, 80% of the participants assigned to Pathways to Housing were in stable housing after 12 months compared to 24% for the three-ste
Continuum of Care
programs. Housing serves approximately 700 individuals living in supported scattered-site apartments throughout

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

;

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...

;

the District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

History

In a widely cited article entitled Pathways to Housing, published in 2000, Tsemberis and Eisenberg reported on a study undertaken from 1993 to 1997 examining the effectiveness of a five-year (1993-1997) Pathways to Housing supported housing program on 242 clients with severe psychiatric disabilities and addictions in New York City. During that time Pathways to Housing NY provided "immediate access to independent scatter-site apartments for individuals with psychiatric disabilities who were homeless and living on the street." With an 88 percent retention rate, the "supported housing program achieved better housing tenure than did the comparison group." By 2007 Pathways to Housing NY had an annual operating budget of $15M and was funded by grants from city, state and federal government, individual contributions, foundation grants and corporate support. By 2012 Pathways to Housing had successfully housed over 3,000 people with 85-90% retention since 2002. In 2010, Pathways to Housing NY set up a mobile video exhibit at nine locations in New York City where there were over 36,000 homeless people in 2009. The exhibit featured an image of a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk in downtown Manhattan projected on to a building. Words also projected asked passersby to send a text message to help get him off the streets. A text message sent triggered a new video loop in which the man gets up and walks in the door of his new apartment. The idea is to convey visually the organization’s approach to combatting homelessness, which emphasizes getting people who are homeless into housing first and then tackling issues like mental health and addiction. Pathways to Housing NY filled for bankruptcy in 2015, after allegations that Pathways to Housing NY had not paid rent for some of their housing client in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, Tsemberis started Pathways to Housing National, an organization that's scope of services included providing training and technical assistance around housing first and providing support in developing operations at Pathways to Housing DC, Pathways to Housing PA, and Pathways Vermont. Pathways to Housing National filed for bankruptcy in 2016. Pathways Housing First Institute was started in 2019 and provides trainings around housing first. Pathways to Housing DC, Pathways to Housing PA,Pathways Vermont, and Pathways Housing First Institute all currently function as separate entities.

Canada

In Calgary, Alberta, the Alex Pathways to Housing Calgary which opened in 2007, has 150 individuals in scatter site homes in 2013. Client pay 30 percent of their income towards their rent: 85 percent of Pathways to Housing clients receive

Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped The Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) is a provincial program established in 1979 in Alberta, Canada, that provides financial and health related benefits to eligible adult Albertans under the age of 65, who are legally identifie ...

(AISH) benefits and 15 percent receiv
Alberta Works
The Alex Pathways to Housing uses a

model, but it also uses Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), an integrated approach to healthcare where clients access a team of "nurses, mental health specialists, justice specialists and substance abuse specialists." Director Sue Fortune is committed to the 10 Year Plan To End Homelessless in the Calgary Region. Fortune reported that the Housing First approach resulted in a 66 percent decline in days hospitalized (from one year prior to intake compared to one year in the program), a 38 percent decline in times in emergency room, a 41 percent decline in EMS events, a 79 percent decline in days in jail and a 30 percent decline in police interactions. Pathways to Housing Canada describes the Housing First as a "client-driven strategy that provides immediate access to an apartment without requiring initial participation in psychiatric treatment or treatment for sobriety." In Economic Action Plan 2013, the Federal Government of Canada proposed $119 million annually from March 2014 until March 2019—with $600 million in new funding—to renew its Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS). In dealing with

homelessness in Canada Homelessness in Canada was not a social problem until the 1980s. Canadian government housing policies and programs in place throughout the 1970s were based on a concept of shelter as a basic need or requirement for survival and of the obligation o ...

, the focus is on the Housing First model. Thus, private or public organizations across Canada are eligible to receive HPS subsidies to implement Housing First programs.Government of Canada. n
Action Plan: Homelessness Partnering Strategy
/ref>

History

Canada

See also

References

Further reading