The Housing First plan

The Logement d'abord plan aims to significantly reduce homelessness by prioritizing direct access to housing for people in great precariousness.

Logement d'abord is based on several key principles considering housing as a human right, the need for comprehensive support without coercion, with people's buy-in. In the Logement d'abord philosophy, support is decoupled from housing, and no longer presupposes a person's "ability to live".

Cofinanced by the State and the local community, the Logement d'abord plan provides an innovative response to access to housing for people in extreme precariousness in a context of saturation of accommodation facilities and high tensions on social housing.

As part of a national framework, each territory for accelerated implementation of Housing First sets out actions mobilizing numerous institutional partners, associations, landlords, etc.

For the local implementation of the second Logement d'abord plan (2023-2027), Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and the DDETS have defined 5 major orientations:

1. Improving knowledge of the public and needs

Convinced that knowledge is necessary to be able to act, La Métropole wishes to be able to better document the homeless situation on its territory, including people on the street, in squats and in shanty towns.

Following on from the prefiguration work, the ambition for this second Logement d'abord plan is notably the implementation of a local homelessness observatory.

2. Produce affordable and adapted housing

Ambitious, the Metropole's programming of very social housing, which is allocated stone aid, will be put at the service of the second Logement d'abord plan. The objective set between now and 2027 is to finance 11 new social residences spread across the metropolitan territory, as well as to double the number of operations under social integration project management.

3. Promote comprehensive support

The gamble of direct access to housing for homeless people can be won when the necessary resources are mobilized to support people as closely as possible to their needs and temporality. This is what is at stake in the Bail d'abord scheme that has been implemented since 2019 in the Metropole, which mobilizes reinforced, comprehensive, modular support.

Developed in the public housing stock thanks to the mobilization of social landlords, the objective for the second Logement d'abord plan will be to consolidate this scheme and extend it to the private housing stock by mobilizing the social housing agency (AIVS) which has been relaunched in recent months.

Also, the need for support on physical and mental health issues is strong. Particular efforts will therefore be made to foster synergies between the social, health and medico-social sectors, and to offer support responses tailored to the needs of the public.

4. Preventing disruptions in the life course

The difficult life courses of homeless people do not end once they move into housing. Preventive work and referral to mainstream services must be carried out on a daily basis to prevent disruptions in their lives.

In practical terms, this could mean, for example, the continuation of actions to prevent neighborhood disturbances carried out up to now, with a view to the sustainable integration of people and the development of living together.

5. Ensuring steering rooted in the territory

Since 2018, the Metropole has been working to federate numerous players collectively committed to implementing this voluntarist policy that is Housing First. A major coordination and monitoring effort has been carried out to ensure the coherence and complementarity of the actions developed.

Anchoring the philosophy and practices of Housing First is an important challenge of the second plan.

Produce and capture affordable housing

• 7 boarding houses financed
• 40% PLAI in social housing production
• New social real estate agency (AIVS) created in 2022

Prevent rental evictions

91 households assisted in 2022 upon referral by landlords and 384 households assisted by the ADLH platform (access to housing-related rights)

Accompanying households into housing

• 241 professionals and elected officials trained in Housing First
• Lease First: 107 households integrated into housing, including 42 with lease slippage + 5 associative operators and 10 social landlords mobilized

Improving social watch and sheltering

• A doctor recruited to the SIAO
• 2 studies produced on healthcare use
• An open reception area

Developing governance

A dedicated post to lead the plan