The basic idea of Housing First is simple enough, provide homeless people with a home and supports such as mental health and addictions counselling. All of it with the goal of guiding the homeless to living independently.
It’s a simple idea that’s had a profound impact on the people that have been touched by the program.
“I was a broken shell of what you see here today,” Kenton Weisgerber said.
“I had no self-worth, I was dealing with addiction, and I had a lot of mental health issues.”
Weisgerber is one of 26 formally homeless people to enter the program during its first year, and he’s in a much better place. Weisgerber has his own apartment, is upgrading high school classes, actively applying for jobs and ultimately hopes to enter the University of Regina’s School of Business.
“It’s been an amazing journey. Going from being absolutely unaware of what I was going to do, how I was going to get there and if I was going to be safe doing it, to being confident, independent and having a safe place to call my own,” Weisgerber said.
“It’s been such a humbling journey, and I’m so grateful for this program.”
Weisgerber said he’s learned to appreciate the little things he lost when he became homeless around a year-and-a-half ago, such as being able to keep food, have easy access to clean water and regular bathing.
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Housing First has had a dramatic impact on not just Weisgerber’s, but the other clients as well.
Phoenix HOMES oversees the day-to-day operation of the program, along with numerous partner agencies like the YMCA, YWCA, The Circle Project and other members of the Homelessness Partnering Strategy.
READ MORE: Regina YWCA aims to house 240 homeless people by 2018
Housing First supervisor Kendra Giles said that they have seen tremendous anecdotal evidence over the past year.
“Working in this program we’ve seen how successful it is. We see that people aren’t going to emergency, we see that they’re not going to detox, we see that they’re not getting picked up by EMS every day,” she said.
Now, the YMCA has compiled the data into hard evidence, by tracking police and medical interactions of the clients in the year before and after Housing First.
Calls for service dropped to 124 from 1,153, and arrests fell to 58 from 857.
On the medical side, clients spent 342 days in hospital compared to 663 the previous year. Emergency Room visits dropped by 79 per cent, going from 1,158 to 416.
The most striking statistic come from detox visits. The clients had a combined 4,187 trips to detox before Housing First. That figure plummeted to 416, a 91 per cent drop.
It’s a figure Mayor Michael Fougere called “unbelievable”.
“Those numbers are dramatic, irrefutable and substantial. I’m very proud of that,” he said.
“To me it proves that the program works, that the investment by the city, federal government and province is changing people’s lives and it needs to move forward.”
WATCH: Out of the Cold – Kenton Weisgerber’s Story
The program will be expanding as the second year continues. Carmichael Outreach will be introducing the second phase of Housing First homes in the near future.
Meanwhile, Weisgerber is expected to graduate from Housing First soon. The first person graduated from the program in January.
Weisgerber said he’s become a “pathfinder”, a mentor for others in the program.
Officials found the annual cost to have a person in Housing First is $18,080.
Giles said that one woman in the program recently returned to homelessness, but she is still involved in Phoenix programming as they try to find her a more suitable solution.
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