“Housing first” and helping the homeless

LOS ANGELES – August 15, 2010. An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by Jon Morgenstern from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University outlines preliminary findings from a study funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to evaluate New York City's "Housing First" program (i.e., providing housing without preconditions of substance abuse treatment).

In "Housing First' and helping the homeless", Morgenstern, Vice President of and Director of Treatment Research at CASA and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, reports that "84% of the active alcohol and drug-user population remained in housing 18 months after the start of the program, a figure that was higher than another housing program that required clients to get substance-abuse treatment." Morgenstern concludes that "evidence to date supports housing first for active substance abusers as a helpful solution to chronic homelessness and a possible cost-saver."

The op-ed was published in response to the Times' recent four-part series, "Project 50: Four walls and a bed," which looked at a multi-agency partnership to house the 50 most vulnerable people living on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles using a housing first approach.