Housing First

What if we stopped asking people without a home to get better before giving them a place to live?

Housing First starts from a simple idea: housing is not a reward, but a starting point. At DoucheFLUX, we support people with complex life histories in accessing housing directly, without preconditions, with tailored support for as long as needed.

A different approach

The service is aimed at people who have experienced long-term homelessness, who are furthest removed from conventional support services and who face multiple issues: addiction, mental health and physical health problems.

Housing First breaks with the traditional “staircase approach”, in which access to housing is made conditional on completing a series of prior steps. We choose the opposite approach:

  • rapid access to an individual home
  • intensive, flexible and voluntary support
  • respect for the person’s pace and choices
  • harm reduction rather than an abstinence requirement

Housing thus becomes a lever for stabilisation, rather than a distant end goal.

Emménagement d'une personne sans-chez-soi dans son appartement
In practice

Our team consists of

  • a social worker
  • a housing officer
  • a specialised educator
  • a harm reduction specialist
  • a coordinator

In 2025:

  • 29 people received intensive support
  • 88% retained their housing

Why does it work?

Housing First is an internationally proven model that has also been implemented in Belgium for more than 10 years.

The results are clear:

  • high rates of housing retention
  • improved health and stability
  • less reliance on emergency services

But above all: it puts people back at the centre, because what also matters is:

  • regained dignity
  • restored relationships
  • pathways that become possible again

Housing First at DoucheFLUX for 3 years now

l'équipe du housing first de DoucheFLUX en conversation avec une personne chez elle.

The project started in 2023 and is now in a consolidation phase. Following a rapid scale-up, we deliberately chose to stabilise the number of people receiving support in order to:

  • ensure the quality of support
  • maintain balance within the team
  • anchor the project for the long term

This stabilisation is bearing fruit, including an 88% housing retention rate, confirming the relevance of the model. But we refuse to reduce our work to a single figure. Housing retention is an important indicator — not an end in itself. What matters is the concrete improvement in people’s well-being and their ability to take control of their own lives.

Finding housing: an ongoing challenge

Housing First relies on something simple… but rare: housing. We work with:

  • social rental agencies
  • social housing providers
  • committed landlords

These partnerships are essential to making the system possible and ensuring its long-term sustainability.

Making the invisible visible

In 2025, we organised the exhibition Embrasser, c’est un métier?, a photographic documentary project by Julie de Bellaing, complemented by words from the team, collected by Elias Preszow.

This exhibition highlights the relational work at the heart of Housing First. Beyond the images, it is also a way of raising a simple and political question: What are we doing here? From a concrete, personal and symbolic perspective.

The exhibition will be shown again in March 2027 at the Centre Culturel d’Uccle.

Exposition à la bourse de Bruxelles sur le travail de l'équipe Housing first de DoucheFLUX

Access to the service

Do you have any questions? Contact us at housingfirst@doucheflux.be

Consult our Housing First internal regulations or download the complaints form