services were built for decades on a staircase model.
A person moved from the street to a , then to supported accommodation, then to a flat.
Each step required evidence of stability, usually and engagement with treatment.
The logic seems sound and the outcomes were poor.
Most people never reached the top of the staircase, and many cycled back to the street.
Housing First inverts the order and gives a permanent at the start, with support attached.
No condition about is attached to keeping the flat.
Trials in several countries report housing retention above eighty percent after two years.
falls in many cases and does not in others, and the housing holds either way.
Costs shift rather than rise, because emergency services and short stays in hospital fall.
The binding is not the model but the supply of flats.
A programme with no housing to offer becomes a waiting list with a new name.
That is why the approach succeeds in cities that build and stalls in cities that do not.