Working with People Experiencing Homelessness in Europe

ABSTRACT

In Europe, the widespread transition from the Traditional Staircase (TS) model to the Housing First (HF) model is transforming the way social service providers work with people experiencing homelessness. This study examined social service providers’ perspectives in both models regarding factors that facilitate or hinder their work. Data were collected through 17 photovoice projects involving 81 social service providers from eight European countries. The results show factors affecting social service providers’ work at three levels: systemic, organizational, and individual. Professionals in TS and HF identified similar topics; however, TS providers discussed more obstacles to work. Implications for practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• social service providers
• photovoice
• housing first
• Europe

Acknowledgments

We thank the homeless service providers and their organizations that gave their time to participate in this research and HOME_EU study group for the national data gathering and materials cultural adaptation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the European Commission through a grant, as part of H2020 research project HOME_EU: Reversing Homelessness in Europe H2020-SC6-REVINEQUAL-2016/GA/726997. The grant agreement between the European Commission and each research unit involved allows complete liberty and autonomy of researchers in the design of the study; the European Commission will take no part in data collection procedures, analyses, interpretation of the data, or decision to submit results.