« Logement d’abord » the five-year plan for Housing First and the fight against homelessness

juillet 2023

The aim of the five-year plan for housing first and the fight against homelessness, known as the Housing First plan, is to significantly reduce the number of homeless people. The first Logement d’abord plan (2018-2022) enabled almost 440,000 homeless people to gain access to permanent accommodation. In 2023, the Government has announced an increase in the funding allocated to the Logement d’abord 2 plan, with an additional envelope of €160 million between now and 2027, to step up reintegration efforts for homeless people.

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A plan to get homeless people into housing quickly and sustainably

The five-year plan for housing first and the fight against homelessness is being implemented by the Interministerial Delegation for Housing and Access to Housing (Dihal). Its aim is to rapidly move homeless people out of accommodation and into sustainable housing by providing them with appropriate, flexible and multidisciplinary support. This is a comprehensive strategy that also includes issues relating to access to housing for refugees and the reduction of shanty towns.

Choosing Housing First means prioritising housing as the first condition for integration and choosing to make the most of people’s skills. This approach has been validated by numerous experiments in Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon countries. It is also at the heart of the « Un chez-soi d’abord » scheme, which is aimed specifically at people suffering from mental health problems who are in situations of extreme exclusion.

Who is covered by the Housing First plan?

The target groups are homeless people and people experiencing difficulties in accessing or remaining in housing (eviction, leaving institutions, mental health problems, etc.), particularly people living in shantytowns, illegal settlements or squats.

By speeding up access to housing for rough sleepers, the Logement d’abord (Housing First) plan aims to relieve overcrowding in emergency accommodation centres and return them to their original purpose of providing temporary, unconditional shelter for people in great distress.

The 5 priorities of the Housing First plan

The five-year plan for Housing First and the fight against homelessness includes 60 measures based on five main priorities: producing and mobilising affordable housing, speeding up access to housing, supporting people, preventing breakdowns and mobilising players and regions.

Priority 1: Produce and mobilise more affordable housing adapted to the needs of homeless and inadequately housed people

Priority 2: Promote and accelerate access to housing and facilitate residential mobility for disadvantaged people

Priority 3: Provide better support for homeless people and encourage them to stay in housing

Priority 4: Prevent breakdowns in residential pathways and refocus emergency accommodation on its role of providing an immediate and unconditional response.

Priority 5: Mobilise players and regions to implement the Housing First principle

44 local and regional authorities committed to accelerated implementation of the Housing First plan :

1. City of Amiens

2. Pas-de-Calais Departmental Council

3. Dunkerque Grand Littoral Urban Community

4. Lille European Metropolis

5. Urban Community of Arras

6. Cergy-Pontoise Urban Community

7. Seine-Saint-Denis Departmental Council

8. City of Paris

9. Metz Métropole

10. Metropole du Grand Nancy

11. Strasbourg Eurometropole

12. Quimper Bretagne-Occidentale urban community

13. Community of communes of Loudéac

14. Rennes Métropole

15. Sarthe Departmental Council

16. City of Mulhouse

17. Dijon Métropole

18. Lorient Conurbation Council

19. City of Tours

20. Cher Departmental Council

21. Nièvre Departmental Council

22. Doubs Departmental Council

23. Loire-Atlantique Departmental Council Nantes Métropole

24. Communauté urbaine du Grand Poitiers

25. Montluçon Communauté urban community

26. Grand Lyon Métropole

27. Greater Chambéry

28. Conseil départemental du Puy-de-Dôme Clermont-Auvergne Métropole

29. Grenoble-Alpes Métropole

30. Gironde Departmental Council Bordeaux-Métropole

31. Nice-Côte d’Azur Metropolitan Area

32. Greater Avignon urban community

33. Nîmes Métropole urban community

34. City of Toulouse

35. Aix-Marseille Provence Métropole

36. Montpellier-Méditerranée Métropole

37. Sophia-Antipolis Agglomeration Community

38. Toulon Provence-Méditerranée Metropolitan Area

39. Town of Porto-Vecchio

40. Réunion Departmental Council

41. Communauté d’agglomération de l’espace sud de la Martinique (Martinique southern area conurbation community)

42. Dembéni Mamoudzou Urban Community

43. Centre Littoral urban community

In these areas (départements, metropolises, EPCIs), the State, local authorities, accommodation and housing providers and all their health and social partners are jointly committed to shared objectives in terms of results and resources, in order to drastically and steadily reduce homelessness. In their projects, these territories are going beyond the logic of experimentation to implement a structural reform and build, with all their partners, a new model of intervention for homeless people.

A Club of Accelerated Implementation Territories has been set up by Dihal to facilitate the exchange of ideas, tools and good practice between territories.

2023 Housing First figures

The initial results of the actions implemented across the country demonstrate the effectiveness of the Housing First approach:

Launch of the second phase of the Housing First plan

In order to continue the actions undertaken in the first phase of the Housing First plan, the Government has unveiled the main measures for the next 4 years:

Providing practical solutions for sustainable access to housing

Better day-to-day support for the most disadvantaged

Improving the operation of emergency accommodation

500 additional employees will be added to the SIAO (Service Intégré d’accueil et d’orientation (115)) to improve the response to the demand for housing and to ensure that the quality of care provided is increasingly high and tailored to the profiles of the people being sheltered.

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