A 2025 evaluation of Crisis’s Housing First services offers a detailed view of the relationship between accommodation and sustained support. Its Newcastle findings concern a specific service and research period, rather than a measurement of homelessness across the whole city.
Crisis launched its Newcastle service in March 2021, following the London service in November 2019. The charity published the independent evaluation on its website in September 2025. Researchers examined Newcastle’s work from August 2021 to December 2023.
The service combined finding a home with intensive case management. Crisis described teams with clinical psychology input, peer involvement and a personalisation budget. Unlike some schemes, these services were not commissioned or delivered by a statutory agency or housing provider.
The evaluation used several methods, including case-management information, interviews and assessments of how closely the services followed the Housing First model. This matters because a tally of tenancies alone cannot describe the experience of receiving support.
In Newcastle, 19 of the 31 members covered by the evaluation had accessed a Housing First tenancy during the period studied. For those who obtained housing, the average wait was seven months. These are programme figures from that period, not current waiting-time promises for new applicants.
The report identified difficulties securing suitable homes, including a growing shortage of one-bedroom accommodation. It also examined the importance of flexible, continuing support and members’ choice and control over their circumstances.
For housing organisations, the findings point to two connected challenges: access to an appropriate property and the capacity to support someone once housed. Treating those as separate issues can miss how they affect one another.
The evidence does not establish that every participant had the same outcome, or that results can automatically be applied to another city. It does provide a grounded example of how a housing-led service was delivered, and why the availability of homes remained central to its work.