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

July 2023

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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

• Produce social and very social housing adapted to the needs of homeless and inadequately housed people.

• Mobilise private housing stock for social purposes.

• Develop adapted housing solutions in response to specific needs.

• Facilitate the conversion of accommodation centres into housing, according to local needs…

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

• Improve knowledge of homeless people and strengthen social monitoring systems.

• Give priority to housing when referring homeless people.

• Improve access to social housing for disadvantaged households, in particular by mobilising the levers of the Equality and Citizenship Act.

• Promote the residential and geographical mobility of disadvantaged people seeking housing…

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

• Strengthen and coordinate social support to and in housing and offer multidisciplinary and coordinated approaches.

• Support changes in professional cultures and practices and strengthen training for those involved.

• Develop coherence between socio-professional integration and access to housing…

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

• Strengthen the prevention of rental evictions in order to limit the number of evictions and the number of evictions actually carried out.

• Prevent residential breakdown for people leaving institutions or who are victims of violence.

• Refocus emergency accommodation on its role as an immediate and unconditional response to situations of distress…

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

• Establish effective governance at all levels.

• Support and engage with territories for accelerated implementation.

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:

• 440,000 homeless people gained access to housing between 2018 and 2022 as part of the Housing First plan;

• 122,300 social housing allocations for homeless households (housed outside the DNA or homeless) have been made between 2018 and 2022, i.e. +43% compared with the period 2013 - 2017;

• 67% increase in the share of sheltered and homeless households in total social housing allocations in 2022 compared with 2017;

• 40,000 new private rental intermediation places created between 2018 and 2022, i.e. +118% of the stock financed at the end of 2017;

• 7,200 new places opened in boarding houses between 2017 and 2022, i.e. +50% of the stock existing at the end of 2016.

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

• Creation of 30,000 intermediary rental places to enable people in very precarious situations to find affordable accommodation in the private sector;

• Opening of 10,000 more boarding house places to facilitate the reintegration of people living in isolation or social exclusion in a setting combining individual accommodation and communal areas.

Better day-to-day support for the most disadvantaged

• Reinforcing social rental management assistance to improve the care and monitoring of people living in social residences (single-parent families, precarious workers, young workers, etc.).

• Continuation of the 26 mobile eviction prevention teams;

• Opening of new sites as part of the « Un chez soi d’abord » scheme following a successful trial. This measure provides direct access to housing from the street, as well as support at home from various professionals (employment, health).

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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