With our help, Jihlava has shown that Housing First works
Jihlava is one of the cities that decided to try out the Housing First approach in its territory. The city council and the Jihlava Regional Charity provided the most vulnerable people with standard housing and intensive social work. Throughout the entire period, we provided them with both professional know-how and the data and arguments needed to gain broader support for the project.
Why is this necessary?
We began promoting the Housing First approach in Czechia because existing methods of tackling homelessness were not producing satisfactory results. The assumption was that a number of conditions had to be met on the path to independent living. Paying off debts, finding a job, stabilizing one’s health and mental state… All this without stable housing. It turned out that 80% of people would never escape homelessness this way.
The Housing First approach, on the other hand, respects the fact that most people need stable housing to solve their problems—this is provided to people first. They have standard leases, often in municipal apartments, and pay reasonable rent. In the safety of their homes and with individualized support from social workers, they can then focus on what is troubling them.
In Jihlava, in particular, there was demand for such an approach from social services. Workers were frustrated that they could not provide some clients with the necessary assistance under the existing system. That is why we started working together, which included the implementation of a pilot project in 2019–2021.
Solutions in numbers
0
from 12 households
retained their housing for the duration of the project. The remaining three apartments found new tenants.
0
people
were accommodated during the project. There were 29 adults and 18 children.
What we did
At the beginning, we directed Jihlava to call No. 108, which made it possible to obtain funding and methodological support for the implementation of the project. The Jihlava project was one of 13 others that ran in various parts of the Czech Republic. We also helped with the preparation of the project application.
We participated in the preparation of the registration week: this involves collecting data on people in housing need so that the city can obtain a basis for further steps in the development of social housing. In Jihlava, the municipal police, social services, hostel owners, and volunteers helping in the field were involved in the census. A total of 235 people who could benefit from the project were counted.
Throughout the project, we provided information and methodological support to the city and social workers: we shared the necessary data with them, helped them deal with complex situations, and connected them with other project implementers from whom they could draw on experience. In the fall of 2021, we also co-organized a large sharing conference in Jihlava.
Would you like to learn more about the Jihlava project? Write to jan.milota@socialnibydleni.org.
When they told me I had been selected, I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t understand. It probably took me two or three days to realize it.
We were looking forward to having privacy and peace and quiet—no shouting at night, getting a good night’s sleep, and a bathtub, and our son being able to invite his friends over.
