Housing First is a system of support for 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 people previously experiencing homelessness, 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 Newcastle Housing First service is running from March 2021 until March 2024 and aims to engage up to 80 service users over the three-year period. The service is one component of a ten-year partnership between Newcastle City Council (NCC) and Crisis with the aim of ending homelessness in the city. Crisis is seeking a skilled and experienced contractor to undertake an evaluation of the Crisis Newcastle Housing First service. Through a longitudinal, mixed methods approach 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 internal and external factors enable or inhibit fidelity of the service in Newcastle
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.

This evaluation will aim provide evidence to inform future commissioning by Newcastle City Council as it transitions to a more housing-led approach in the city. Additionally, 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.

Read the full Invitation to Tender document

The deadline for submission proposals is COB Thursday, 8 July 2021.

For further information please contact anna.tomson@crisis.org.uk and katie.hardcastle@crisis.org.uk