Provide housing first. Then offer the services needed to maintain self-sufficiency. That’s the new strategy of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. The committee’s program, called SafeHome Philadelphia, is guided by the “Housing First” strategy.

The Housing First approach puts permanent housing as the most important component in the fight against homelessness. Once permanent housing is found, then services such as drug or alcohol counseling are employed to achieve and maintain stability.

The approach differentiates Housing First from other programs that rely on emergency shelter as a long-term solution. “A Housing First approach rests on the belief that helping people access and sustain permanent, affordable housing should be the central goal of our work with people experiencing homelessness,” according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are three key components to a Housing First approach. First, there must be ample crisis intervention, emergency services, and a needs assessment. Those who are homeless should be provided with emergency shelter, where service providers conduct early screening to assess immediate and long-term needs. Second, there should be permanent housing services. Assistance must be available for finding affordable units, accessing housing subsidies, and negotiating leases. And third, there must be case management services to ensure individuals and families have a source of income. Management services must be available to work with families after the move to help tackle problems that may threaten the ability to maintain the housing.

The combination of housing relocation services and case management enables families to break the cycle of homelessness, according to Beyond Shelter, a Los Angeles-based organization aimed at combating poverty, welfare dependency, and homelessness among families with children. The organization, which uses the 10-year-old strategy, says permanent housing gives families and individuals self-confidence and control over their lives. That confidence and control encourages them to continue working towards self-sufficiency.

Organizations in a number of cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Boston are pursuing Housing First in hopes of solving the problem of homelessness. But more research is needed to determine if the approach is the best way to combat homelessness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which recently completed a study of the effectiveness of the program.

“Not surprisingly, the jury is still out on whether Housing First is the most effective, or most desirable, strategy for meeting the needs of the hardest to help,” said Darlene F. Williams, the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Phyllis Ryan Jackson, executive director of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness, said she’s heard good things about the program and is hopeful for its success locally.