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The Housing First: a foundation for recovery toolkit has been developed by the Brisbane South PHN (BSPHN) Partners in Recovery Consortium – a group of 10 non-government organisations partnered with BSPHN to support people with severe and persistent mental health issues.

As a group of agencies, we are committed to changing our practices and the systems we work within to bring Housing First to people with severe mental illness. 

The culmination of our recent work is this action plan and associated fact sheets on Housing First and Integrated Healthcare models. We have worked together to understand Brisbane’s housing, homelessness and mental health challenges, and map out how Housing First can be implemented for people with mental illness in our community. As organisations who are supporting people with recovery, we understand the crucial importance of getting clinical treatment services to people wherever they are. This report provides models, evidence and recommendations for how that can be achieved – primarily through embedding multidisciplinary teams in community services and integrating those services with permanent housing. 

There are eight detailed factsheets that accompany the 500 Lives 500 Homes Campaign Overview. Please visit the 500 Lives 500 Homes website to view the factsheets.

Through this project, many people who were homeless in the Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains and Penrith Local Government Areas (NBM district) were identified, housed and a new way of working within the district was created. It embraced government, non government and corporate sector working together.

AHURI Final Report No.265

Authors: Lisa Wood, Paul Flatau, Kaylene Zaretzky, Sarah Foster, Shannen Vallesi, Darja Miscenko.
Copyright: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited 2016

This research found that supporting formerly homeless people and those at risk of homelessness into public housing in Western Australia reduced their use of health services as well as the frequency with which they did so. The reduction in health service use, which was particularly evident for hospital stays and psychiatric care, could save WA $4,846 per person per year for a total of $16.4 million per year. This increases to $84,135 per person per year for clients of the NPAH Mental Health program.

The Urban Institute’s evaluation of the 100,000 Homes Campaign (the Campaign) found that the Campaign had a major impact on national efforts to end homelessness, despite its modest staffing and budget. Community Solutions successfully recruited nearly every major city to join the Campaign and exceeded its goal of placing 100,000 chronically or vulnerable homeless Americans into permanent housing.