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Documented experience in Porto Alegre moved homeless people to private properties, with housing assistance and health and social assistance monitoring, in a model based on Housing First and cited in official publications on housing.
The Porto Alegre City Hall developed, within the Moradia Primeiro program, an experience of solidarity rent to move homeless people directly to private properties, with housing assistance and periodic monitoring by health and social assistance teams.
According to a publication by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the initiative had recorded 10,801 days off the streets by October 2019, considering 70 people housed during the analyzed period.
The proposal follows the international methodology known as Housing First, which treats immediate access to safe, individual housing, dispersed in the territory and integrated into the community as the starting point of care.
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With this design, access to housing does not appear as a reward at the end of a sequence of requirements, but as a basis for reorganizing documentation, health care, social bonds, and daily routine with the support of the public network.
Moradia Primeiro changes the logic of shelter
In Porto Alegre, the model was associated with the Municipal Plan for Overcoming Homelessness, presented by the city hall in May 2018 to articulate housing, health, social assistance policies, and territorial monitoring.
The strategy aimed to serve people in extreme vulnerability without concentrating them only in large public facilities, bringing care closer to neighborhoods and services available in different regions of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.
Instead of gathering beneficiaries in collective dormitories, the program started using properties scattered throughout the city, such as houses, apartments, and inns, intending to create a routine closer to community life.
This logic reduces dependence on temporary shelters and creates conditions for the resident to build a path out of the streets, in a more stable environment, with a defined address and continuous support from the public network.
The report cited by the federal government states that, by October 2019, the experience accumulated 10,801 days off the street, a number calculated from the 70 people housed in the program.
In the same publication, staying in housing is associated with a reduction in hospitalizations, greater monitoring of clinical and mental health situations, and connection with local network services.
Solidarity Rent brings public policy and private properties closer
Integrated with Housing First, the action known as Solidarity Rent involved private owners interested in making houses or apartments available for the program, creating a bridge between public policy and the local rental market.
According to the Porto Alegre City Hall, the initiative aimed to offer opportunities for overcoming homelessness to people already monitored by outreach, social assistance, or health teams.
The operation involved the registration and evaluation of housing by city hall teams, who conducted inspections before enabling the property to receive beneficiaries supported by the municipal program.
Unlike policies based solely on bed, food, and overnight stay, this arrangement transforms care into a strategy for housing permanence, with housing and technical support after the move.
Upon entering a house, inn, or apartment, the beneficiary no longer relies exclusively on moving between sidewalks, squares, canopies, shelters, and collective facilities, and starts to occupy a recognized address.
The properties used in the experience had to offer minimum housing conditions, such as an individual room, except in cases of couples, as well as access to a bathroom, kitchen, running water, electricity, and ventilation.
Even when there are shared areas, the proposal preserves the idea of housing integrated into the city, avoiding the concentration of assisted people in large reception centers and favoring connections with the territory.
Support continues after entering the property
Entry into Housing First occurs through the recommendation of teams already supporting homeless people, allowing beneficiaries to be selected based on previously established connections by the public network.
During the referral process, professionals conduct a technical evaluation, document analysis, sign the benefit concession agreement, and build a support plan agreed upon with the assisted person.
After the move, support does not end with the delivery of housing, as teams remain present to observe adaptation to the property and identify needs that may compromise permanence.
During regular visits, professionals monitor daily difficulties, provide guidance on public services, address health needs, and work to prevent accumulated problems from leading to a new situation of homelessness.
Within the Housing First methodology, this support functions as a central piece, because housing creates stability, but permanence depends on continued support and coordination with different public policies.
The support becomes even more relevant when the person assisted has a prolonged history of homelessness, psychological suffering, broken family ties, or problematic substance use accompanied by specialized teams.
In practice, the technical visit allows the public network to act before everyday problems worsen, strengthening a preventive logic instead of restricting care only to emergency situations.
Issues such as access to documents, medication, consultations, coexistence with neighbors, house organization, and relationship with the landlord become part of the territorial monitoring carried out after moving into the property.
Mental health appears among documented results
The publication by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship reports that, among the 70 people housed until October 2019, only 17 had been admitted to mental health facilities.
Within this group, 12 did not return to hospitalization, three reduced hospitalizations, and two maintained the same pattern of rehospitalization after entering the program, according to the disclosed data.
The same document also presents information on the use of psychoactive substances, with different situations recorded among participants, including people who stopped using, started non-problematic use, or were in treatment.
These indicators help explain why the experience has been cited in debates about alternatives to the traditional reception model, although the available data refer to the documented cycle until 2019.
The policy does not eliminate the need for shelters, especially in emergency situations, but proposes another path for people who remain for long periods in the cycle between street, occasional care, and return to the street.
For this audience, a fixed address functions as a base of care, allowing health, social assistance, documentation, and community ties to be worked on in less unstable conditions.
Fixed address reorganizes daily life
When occupying a home, the assisted person has space to store documents, clothes, medications, and personal belongings, something that life on the streets often makes unstable or unfeasible.
More predictable conditions also arise for resting, cooking, receiving technical visits, and organizing travel for consultations, public services, or job opportunities, without relying exclusively on the routine of collective facilities.
Although it seems simple, the change alters basic points of daily life because it replaces the struggle for space in public areas with a housing experience with autonomy and its own responsibilities.
Instead of relying on service opening hours or the availability of spots in shelters, the resident starts managing an address and rebuilding ties with the city.
This transition requires monitoring because leaving the streets is not just about the physical change of location, especially when a person has lived for years under instability, exposure to violence, and broken bonds.
For many beneficiaries, housing comes after long periods of losing documents, difficulty in regular access to the public network, and distancing from family, community, or professional references.
Therefore, Housing First combines rent, social support, health care, and community engagement, based on the idea that housing stability improves conditions for adherence to treatments.
The policy also seeks to favor the restoration of bonds and the reorganization of life projects, without treating housing as the final stage of a rigid service process.
Experience does not replace broad housing policy
The case of Porto Alegre does not solve the housing deficit alone nor does it replace large-scale housing programs, but it addresses a specific segment of the homeless population.
The initiative prioritizes people in greater vulnerability and with prolonged street trajectories, offering an alternative for situations where temporary shelter cannot produce lasting stability.
Even with a limited reach, the program shows a concrete possibility for cities facing an increase in the homeless population and seeking responses beyond the expansion of collective dormitories.
By using existing properties and contracts in the private market, the city avoids relying exclusively on the construction of new public facilities and distributes housing across different points of the urban territory.
The experience also shifts the focus of public policy, as it replaces the question of who is ready to receive a house with the understanding of housing as an initial condition of care.
In Porto Alegre, Housing First has become one of the most mentioned Brazilian experiences in the discussion about Housing First and public policies aimed at the homeless population.
Its main differential is in reversing the traditional order of service: first the address, then the necessary support to ensure that staying off the streets is no longer an exception but becomes a real possibility.
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