The 'Housing First' Policy, Will It Work For Portland?

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The 'Housing First' policy was created in the 1990s with the goal of quickly housing people who were experiencing homelessness. This housing is provided affordably and meant to be safe and permanent. The idea is that there are no preconditions to the program, meaning they are quickly housed so they can then be on the path to stabilizing their lives.

In the midst of recent discussion surrounding housing those who are experiencing homelessness, the effectiveness of this program came into question. Some of the concern around the topic was the lack of preconditions one must go through to receive housing through the program. The principles of this program define that housing must come first, and that applicants are not required to have an income, they may still be using alcohol or other substances, they cannot be evicted based upon failure to stay with a treatment plan, amongst other principles. This poses the question of whether the tenants can be relied upon to pay rent, stay clean, and stay on a treatment plan, since there are no repercussions.


Many studies have shown different results of effectiveness of the 'Housing First' policy, but it can be said that it is effective, but not on a large scale. It has shown to be effective for individuals and their specific situations.

In Portland Oregon, maybe we need to rethink the 'Housing First' policy to fit the circumstances of our specific city and the specific community of those who are experiencing homelessness. Whether that be to allow more flexibility to the requirements of the program or to generally reassess the mandates and lack of preconditions of the policy. Maybe we can make this program work for Portland!


Published by: Magdalena Grigorov, senior at Portland State University, studying Public Health Studies

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