The ‘Back From The Streets’ Project- An Alternative Housing Led Approach in Hungary

European Research ConferenceAccess to Housing for Homeless People in Europe

York, 21st September 2012

The ‘Back From The Streets’ ProjectAn alternative housing led approach

in HungaryAndrea Szabó

Public Foundation for the HomelessHungary



Program context From 2010 strong political pressure to reduce rough

sleeping (mainly at visible places, city centres, public areas)

New local and national law on the use of public places, new approach of (visible) homelessness by the police and local authorities

Strong need of service providers for recourses to finance reasonable and professional social work tools

New programs to help rough sleepers into appropriate accommodation



Program context: Activities of the Public Foundation for the Homeless

Public Foundation for the Homeless

Development of the homeless-service system in Hungary

FOGLAK Project Office

Research, communication, support for service providers

Foundation Office – Fund

allocation, tendering

Service providing for homeless people

State -Agency role

NGO role



Development of the homeless-service system in Hungary

FOGLAK Project Office

•Pilot project co-founded by the state and the EU 2008-2012.•Development of new approaches and social work tools promoting social inclusion and mainstream employment of homeless people

Research, communication, support

for service providers

•Awareness raising campaigns, events•National conference on homelessness•Meetings and formal consultations between relevant national or local political actors and the service providers

Fund allocation, tendering

• Allocation of governmental recourses dedicated to develop the service system for homeless people in the annual national budget

• Planning of the new calls considering the policy development directions, the implementation and adaptation of new approaches



Program background Late 2010:

Remaining found from a closed program financed by the Ministry of Human Recources, coordinated by the Public Foundation

First consultations with the ministry to use the resource for the new issue (visible rough sleeping)

Early 2011: Designing the call, developing the terms and conditions Promoting the new program for the service providers (the applicants)

From March to November 2011 Dealing with administrative issues Dealing with reduced found

December 2011 call for proposals April 2012 final grant agreements March – May 2012 start of supported programs December 2012 – January 2013 closure of supported programs



Program details The found

Source: National budget, Ministry of Human Resources Amount: 104 million HUF ≈ 371,428 €

Supported programs 18 programs: 7 in Budapest, 10 Cities in countryside

Target group Pimary target group: 209 chronic rough sleepers (109

living in cities in countryside, 100 living in Budapest) Secondary target group: 61 homeless people living in

shelters (19 living in Cities in countryside, 42 living in Budapest)



Program details: locations

Budapest

Cityies in countryside: Szombathely, Mosonmagyaróvár, Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Tatabánya, Kecskemét, Szolnok, Kazincbarcika, Debrecen, Nyíregyháza



Participants pathwaysChronic Rough sleeping

PRIMARY TARGET GROUP

NO SHELTER

HomeLong term care (nursing home, or psychiatric care)

One-night or temporary shelter


Providing free beds in one-night shelter or temporary shelter – help to move on for participants in sheltersSECONDARY TARGET GROUP


New easy access shelter for chronic rough sleepers



WHY IS THE EVALUATION NECESSARY?



flexible individual support in housing

homelessness

shared housing, “training dwell-ings”, etc.

regular dwelling with (time-limited) occupation agree-ment based on special conditions

regular self- contained

dwelling with rent contract

reception stage

Long term rough sleeping

One-night Shelter (more rules, limited tolerance of alcohol, free service)

Temporary shelter (service fee, strict rules, better living conditions)

regular self- contained

dwelling with rent contract

Easy access services (crisis shelters, few order, free service, tolerance of alcohol etc.)

‚Elsőként Lakhatás’ –

in Hungary

Street work

X XOriginal figure fromDr. Volker Busch-Geertsema



An example: evaluation of a previous housing led program

Program aim: promoting social inclusion and mainstream employment of homeless people

Found: co-financed by the EU and the state Target group: homeless people using any service Data collection: specific software designed for the

programs The database: 6 Region; 16 City; 23 supported

program; 1062 homeless individual; 596 supported participants; 447 successfully completed individual support plan



Two indicators of programs at the end of the follow up period



How can these indicators be interpreted?












Evaluation of programs3rd of February survey

Independent annual survey since 1999 Designed and coordinated by a working group Target group: homeless people in contact with service providers (street

work, shelters, temporary accommodations) Location: 1999-2005 Budapest, 2006-2011 larger cities of Hungary also,

2012 smaller towns of Hungary also Number of respondents 6,000-8,500 at each last 6 survey, 32,000 individual

between 03.02.2006 and 03.02.2012. The service providers can join to the data collection The data collection is on the 3rd of February each year The social workers are offering the questionnaire for the homeless people,

and they also help to understand the questions or write down the answers The questionnaire is anonym and voluntary



Evaluation of programs3rd of February survey - Data structure

Constant questions every year, and annual focus themes each year – some of them repeatedly asked in a longer period

Each individual has an identical number generated each time at the same method from the monograms and birth date

The long term follow up of each individual respondent is possible including the place of the data collection (eg. on streets, in shelter etc.)



Evaluation of programs The 3rd of February provides baseline data of

each years on the structure and locality of the target group

Each individual in the supported ‚Back from the streets’ programs will be searched in the database, and all answered questions can be analysed as an individual history of homelessness

Also matching indicator data will be collected on ‚Back from the streets’ participants and compared to the baseline data



Evaluation of programs Qualitative data collection

Regular meetings with service providers focusing on useful good practises and barriers when access to the private rental or social rental housing is sought for their homeless clients

On site interview both with social workers project leaders, and participants (part of the program-monitoring)

Detailed interview at two selected programs on the impact of the programs



CONTACT

Hajléktalanokért KözalapítványPublic Foundation For The HomelessAndrea Szabó[email protected]://www.hajlekot.hu/+36-20-989-38-61

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.hajlekot.hu/

The ‘Back From The Streets’ Project- An Alternative Housing Led Approach in Hungary

Documents

service providers

data collection

service system

homeless people

nursing home

europe york

mainstream

europe york