Session: Adapting the Housing First Model of Homeless Services for a New Era (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Over the past decade or so, the dominant paradigm and federal policy framework for ending chronic homelessness in the United States has been the Housing First model. The core principles of this model are: 1) immediate access to housing and services without treatment or sobriety as prerequisites, 2) promotion of individual choice and self-determination in housing and services, 3) provision of person-centered supports that match individual needs, 4) a recovery-oriented service philosophy, and 5) promotion of social and community integration. The original Pathways model of Housing First also emphasized the use of a harm reduction approach and permanent, scatter-site housing (where no more than 20% of the apartments in any building are program apartments). However, recent iterations of this model have placed less emphasis on these elements, and some programs have done away with one or more of these features altogether. In July 2025, President Trump issued an executive order calling for an end to the federal government’s support of Housing First. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced, in their own words, “the most significant policy reforms and changes in [HUD’s] history” that would redirect funds away from Housing First programs to transitional housing and faith-based organizations.

This symposium presents three papers that grapple with these recent adaptations to the original model of Housing First and this paradigmatic shift in U.S. homeless services. The first paper will discuss how a well-established Housing First fidelity measure originally developed for scatter-site permanent supportive housing was adapted for project-based permanent supportive housing. The second paper will interrogate the notion that permanency is a necessary ingredient for Housing First by presenting quantitative findings on successful exits from permanent supportive housing using a two-state, population-level linked dataset. The third paper will use both quantitative and in-depth qualitative methods to describe implementation of Housing First programs that also identify as faith-based. Together, this symposium will illuminate some of the key challenges and opportunities for moving this evidence-based model into a new era. The discussant, a leading expert in Housing First research, will frame these presentations in the context of their extensive body of work and current/past debates on adaptations of this ground-breaking model. The presenters and discussant will conclude the symposium with a panel discussion on the future of Housing First and what a new paradigm in U.S. homeless services might look like.