In our work in Housing First Poland Foundation, Housing First Values are signposts for supportive work with people in the homelessness crisis. They can be followed regardless of the kind of institution, service or program. It is easiest to work according to them if the entire program/service is organized as Housing First Program, because the structure of the program supports this.
However, many of the tips can be used at work, e.g. in a homeless shelter streetworking or medical service. You can build professional relationships based on respect, understanding and non-judgment everywhere.
Below, you can find the tips we follow daily in the Ambivalence Program of the Housing First Poland Foundation.
Housing as a right
- Don’t tell a person experiencing homelessness that if they do this and that, for example, go to a shelter or detox, they will get an apartment – housing is their right just like other people’s.
- Ask what the person needs to feel “at home” and act on this tip.
- Explain tenant responsibilities – rights come with responsibilities – part of your income must be spent on housing costs, follow neighborhood rules and make sure that your guests do not become roommates.
- Don’t beat yourself up for the fact that studio apartments in your program are not available to participants within 6 weeks of reporting that need. It’s okay to provide housing in a different way. You will find it.
Decisions
- Don’t take it upon yourself to decide for the participants what is good in their lives and what they can or should do.
- Wait. Listen to what they are ready to share with you right now, here at this moment. You may be asked to sweep the floor.
- However, watch your limits. Some of the decisions of the participants will require you to act against them: when their lives are threatened, they experience violence or other crimes, they are the perpetrators of violence.
Recovery
- There are no small steps.
- A face-to-face meeting once a month is a big step away from texting emotions through the phone screen all day long.
- A can of beer is a big step away from a bottle of vodka.
- The same as the courage to consult a psychotraumatologist and share the deepest painful emotions.
- The same as the decision that I want to live and I want to live in an apartment.
Support
- Make sure that you can provide participants with all the services that they are open to use now.
- This could be a cleaning service, social work, therapy, psychiatric consultation, or a meeting with a non-judgmental person who has time to hang out together.
- Professionals who provide these services can be hired within your team or externally.
- Your job is to make sure that the participants can use them when they need to,
just like other members of the community, without exclusion due to homelessness or any other. - Don’t feel obliged to provide services that are not available to anyone. You can try but you do not have to.
- You work within much bigger system and can influence it only as much as you can.
Community
- We are all equally important to the local community. We all bring our potential and problems to it.
- There are services in local communities that will always be there regardless of our special programs, innovative ngo projects. They may be of a different quality, but they are permanent.
- Social welfare centers, housing departments, mental health clinics, primary health care are there.
- Make sure the participant knows where to go and how to act to get help.
Relationship
- Build relationships with the participants so that they want to share with you what they are experiencing, what they are afraid of, what they are happy about.
- Be honest – you are not a friend or family member. You are an employee who wants and has a duty to work according to the rules of art, professionally.
- You can be friendly and finish work at 5 p.m. at the same time, not answer the phone on the weekend (unless there’s a crisis) and that’s fine.
- However, if you make an appointment you have to be there no matter what.
- You are a party in a relationship that is supposed to model good behavior, so your behavior is as much a tool for change as an apartment.
- A relationship is not a goal in itself. A relationship is supportive if, because of building it, the participants achieve some of their goals.
- Be a professional: get qualifications, update them, consult with colleagues, supervise work with a specialist with more experience, learn to give and receive feedback.
The tips were presented on the First European Housing First Partners Conference in Berlin during the workshop on “Housing First Values – what bonds us today” by Julia Wygnańska, President of HFPF.