housing first

Over the last two decades, North American cities have been giving homeless people a place to live before any other treatment. The programs mostly work, but now researchers are seeking improvements.

• By Francie Diep

First introduced in 1992, the Housing First model suggested that we fight homelessness by first giving the homeless a place to live. Twenty-four years later, the study of a program in Hamilton, Ontario, sheds some light on how the system is working today.

• By Bettina Chang