Housing First in Hamburg: Housing shortage is slowing down a successful model

Housing First is a huge success in Hamburg. This is shown by the final report on the model project, which the citizens have now taken note of. But the model is reaching its limits in an empty housing market.

The numbers make fantastic reading: Hamburg's Housing First pilot project moved 37 homeless people into permanent apartments between 2022 and 2025 - 7 more than planned. Almost everyone's health and social participation have improved substantially.

The whole thing didn't cost more than the previous “Level 3” of Hamburg's homeless assistance program, whose goal is also to get people into stable housing conditions. A key difference is that in “Stage 3” the person responsible for the measure initially acts as a tenant of an apartment. The homeless person is their subtenant for the first year and only then becomes the main tenant in the apartment.

There are also differences in the clientele: people who live in urban residential accommodation are also eligible for “level 3”. You have to go through several rounds of consultation in advance and will only be accepted into the program if the “housing prognosis” is favorable.

At Housing First, no such pre-selection is made. On the contrary: only those who have previously lived on the streets for at least a year can take part - in other words, those people who have been furthest away from housing so far. You must be entitled to social benefits, but otherwise meet no other conditions. You become a tenant yourself right from the start. The provider ensures that the rent comes through the job center, guarantees any losses and offers support to the new tenants.

This worked so well in the model experiment that Hamburg was the first federal state to include Housing First in the catalog of standard benefits according to Book XII of the Social Code. Homeless people therefore have a legal right to funding – if they find a place.

According to Wolfgang Arnhold, spokesman for the Hamburg social authorities, there are currently 75 places. This means that his authority has made appropriate agreements with providers - not necessarily that these places are also available. The providers first have to find landlords who will rent to previously homeless people.

The Benno and Inge Behrens Foundation, which has already carried out the model project, relies primarily on larger private landlords - and is quite successful in doing so: it has brokered over half of its rental agreements this way. It has now accommodated 49 people in 47 apartments.

Housing First was developed in the USA in the 1990s because traditional homeless services for people with multiple problems - often addiction plus mental illness - were not working. With Housing First, the apartment comes first without any conditions and then support in dealing with the problem, and only at the client's request. There are various German model projects. In Berlin, Housing First should become the basic principle of helping the homeless.

Housing First initiatives exist in several European countries. But none is as advanced as Finland: Here, Housing First was declared the basic principle of homeless work at the national level in 2008. The number of homeless people is steadily falling and emergency accommodation and homes have been almost completely abolished. According to a study, Finland saves 15,000 euros per year per person with Housing First. Finland wants to have completely overcome homelessness by 2027. Recently, the number of homeless people has risen again following cuts in social services.

Only 38 of them are currently in the Housing First program, says director Nina Behlau, the others are now getting along without social work support. But they could also seek help again at any time.

“But we notice that there is less fluctuation,” says Behlau, “there is less traction.” This is also confirmed by David Schmidt-Tazir from the second Housing First provider, the Rautenberg Society: “We have agreed on 30 places with the social authorities, but so far we have only been able to fill 17 because we cannot find any apartments.” Something is most likely to happen with cooperatives.

He also hopes for small private landlords in the future. “We offer a really good package,” says Schmidt-Tazir. “A rent guarantee, a budget for damage to the apartment and a permanent contact person for conflict situations.”

The statistics speak for Housing First: At the Rautenberg Society, only two tenants have moved out in three years because they wanted to change location. At the Behrens Foundation, only one rental agreement has been terminated since 2022.

The Green MP Kathrin Warnecke, who put the Housing First final report on the citizens' agenda, speaks of a success story, but also says: "Now we especially need more housing companies that offer long-term homeless people a safe home, and organizations that accompany them as they restart their everyday lives." She reminds us of the red-green common goal, which, however, did not make it into the coalition agreement: “We want to overcome homelessness in Hamburg by 2030. Housing First is a central success model for this.”

This is also how we see it in the social welfare authorities. “We are currently in discussions with other providers,” says spokesman Arnhold. However, they would also have to compete for the few apartments available.

In order to overcome homelessness, there would have to be a real boom in Housing First or similarly successful concepts. In four years we have managed to provide 66 people with permanent housing. According to estimates, 4,000 people live on the streets in Hamburg.