Describe the U.S. Housing First initiative and how it helps Americans

Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness that centers on providing people experiencing homelessness with housing as quickly as possible and then providing services as needed. Housing First differs from traditional approaches that require sobriety or employment before housing is offered/rewarded. The approach reflects a paradigm shift -- put people in safe housing, provide basic necessities, reduce stress levels, and then approach health and health care behaviors. Housing First initiatives involve a system redesign that requires social, health care, legal, law enforcement, government, and funding agencies to collaborate. Twelve metropolitan areas that have implemented a housing first model have measured decreased rates of homelessness.?