For Homeless, A Home May Be The Best Rehab

(...)The traditional way to help chronically homeless people has been to get them into a temporary shelter where they can work on getting sober or dealing with a psychiatric illness. Only once that hard work is done are they considered ready for permanent housing.

Housing First turns all that upside down. It finds the permanent place to live first. It doesn't matter if the homeless person is still drinking or using drugs, because having a home is considered therapeutic by itself. Case workers are then around to help the person address the problems that caused him or her to be homeless.

Now a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association offers new support to the Housing First approach (...)

by Joseph Shapiro at Health & Science npr.org

English