Putting Housing First, Making Housing Last: Housing Policy for Persons with Severe Mental Illness
Date Published: April 10, 2008
Publisher:
Fundamental Policy
Author: Sandra Newman and Howard Goldman
Housing assistance in the United States is not an entitlement, and securing housing requires the ability to wade through bureaucracy and compete for coveted spots—a challenge for anyone, let alone those with mental illness. For example, if one is lucky enough to secure a housing voucher—one form of housing assistance—landlords still must be willing to rent to a person with a mental illness. Unfortunately, no data tells us what fraction of the population with severe and persistent mental illness are recipients of federal housing subsidies.
In their paper "Putting Housing First, Making Housing Last" for the Fundamental Policy — Spotlight on Mental Health Conference, Newman and Goldman argue that the first step to reducing homelessness for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness is to better understand both issues of access to housing, and the services and supports that ensure they remain housed. Policy, they argue, has moved far ahead of research on housing for people with a severe mental illness. Research must now build the evidence base to advance a new generation of housing policy focused on the highest priority issues.
