On September 26, the fourth webinar in the international Housing First series took place. This webinar explored different approaches to collecting data at the systems level in Housing First programs. Experts and practitioners in Canada and Europe shared their research, policies and practices on the following topics:
- Monitoring homelessness in Denmark in the context of the implementation of Housing First in national policy - Lars Benjaminsen
- Homelessness prevention and housing among first-time and recurrent shelter users in Canada - Ian Cooper
- Housing First evaluations in Germany - an overview - Volker Busch-Geertsema
Live event date: September 26, 2023
Watch below and/or download the recording:
This webinar was presented by EENet, the Canadian Housing First Network and the Housing First Europe Hub.
Discussant
Nick Kerman is a scientific associate at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. He conducts community-based mixed-methods research on interventions and services for people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. His current research focuses on safety and risk management in community health and social service settings, including Housing First programs.
Presenters
Ian Cooper is the director of data collection, analysis and results reporting in the Homelessness Policy Directorate at Infrastructure Canada. He leads data-related activities in support of Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, and research and analysis to advance understanding of homelessness in Canada. Prior to his current position, he held various management roles in the Canadian federal public service, including at the Public Health Agency of Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
Lars Benjaminsen is a senior researcher at VIVE – The Danish Center for Social Science Research. Since 2006 he is a member of the European Observatory on Homelessness (FEANTSA). He is responsible for conducting the national homelessness counts in Denmark that have been carried out every second year since 2007. He has taken part in evaluating the Housing First-based Danish National Homelessness Strategy and other Housing First-based programs in Denmark and has conducted various other studies on homelessness in Denmark. He has also conducted large studies on social exclusion, poverty and deprivation in Denmark.
Volker Busch-Geertsema is a sociologist and senior research fellow and board member of the Association for Social Planning and Social Research (Gesellschaft für Innovative Sozialforschung und Sozialplanung - GISS) in Bremen, Germany. Since 2009 he has been the coordinator of the European Observatory on Homelessness and since 2015 he has been Honorary Professor at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. Volker specializes in homelessness research and has participated in a number of European Research networks on homelessness. He is the author of several books and a large number of articles on different aspects of homelessness and housing policy in Germany, Europe and beyond. He has conducted evaluations of several Housing First projects in Germany and Europe.
About the organizers
Canadian Housing First Network - Community of Interest
The Canadian Housing First l Network – Community of Interest (CHFN-COI) assists communities across Canada to develop, evaluate, and improve Housing First (HF) programs based on the Pathways model tested, adapted, and shown to be effective in the At Home / Chez Soi Demonstration Project.
The CHFN-CoI (formerly the Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest (OHFRN-CoI)), consist of HF champions, HF programs across Canada, policy-makers planners, managers, service providers, researchers, and persons with lived experience, including representatives from the housing, health, and justice sectors and Indigenous housing and support providers.
The CHFN is hosted by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) and Evidence Exchange Network (EENet) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Housing First Europe Hub
The Housing First Europe Hub was established in 2016 by the Y-Foundation (Finland) and FEANTSA (the European Federation of National Organisations Working with Homeless People) along with more than 15 partners. Since then, the Hub has grown to include more than 37 organizations, cities, government ministries, housing providers and researchers from across Europe and beyond.
The Hub works in partnership with core and associate partners to promote Housing First as the first and central response to homelessness.
Evidence Exchange Network
Evidence Exchange Network (EENet) is part of the Knowledge Mobilization portfolio in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s (CAMH) Provincial System Support Program (PSSP). EENet moves evidence to action to improve programming and inform policy change.
Our team works closely with researchers, clinicians, policymakers, system planners, service providers, and people with lived experiences to mobilize knowledge and help people connect with each other.