Housing First is a system of support for homeless people with high and complex needs which is designed to deliver a sustainable exit from homelessness, improve health and wellbeing and enable social integration. Housing First uses ordinary housing, which can be privately or socially rented. Housing First is designed to house formerly homeless people with high needs in their own, settled homes as quickly as possible and to provide the support they will need to sustain an exit from homelessness on their own terms.

The Crisis Housing First service started in November 2019 and operates in the London area. It will aim to engage up to 20 people in Year 1, and then increase that offer to a further 20 people in Year 2, making a total cohort of 40 people being supported by the service.

Crisis is seeking a skilled and experienced contractor to undertake an evaluation of the Crisis Housing First service. The evaluation aims to understand the effectiveness of the Housing First service for a specific cohort over a time period which encompasses pre-, during- and post- Covid-19 contexts. The evaluation will assess the outcomes and impact relating to four components:

1. Process: How the service works, how it is designed to respond to the needs of the target population, who is involved in delivering the service, etc.
2. Fidelity: How closely the service adheres to the core principles of the Housing First model, and which external factors enable or inhibit fidelity of the service in London  
3. Effectiveness: Service performance and outcomes for clients, and the experience of clients supported by the service 
4. Cost effectiveness: Whether the service achieves better outcomes than existing homelessness services, and whether it generates savings due to use of other services 

The evaluation will allow Crisis to contribute to the evidence base on the effectiveness of Housing First in a UK context as well provide evidence each year on how we can improve the model in subsequent years. There needs to be a focus in the evaluation on sharing evidence to influence policy and practice in an accessible format.  

Please follow this link to the Invitation to Tender document. 

The deadline for submission proposals is Friday 10 July 2020.

For further information please contact erika.moisl@crisis.org.uk