Pathways to Housing (1992)
Psychologist Sam Tsemberis founded Pathways to Housing in New York City, pioneering the Housing First model: immediate, permanent housing with no precondition of sobriety or treatment. Randomized studies later showed Housing First clients stayed housed at significantly higher rates than those in treatment-first programs.
The model spread to dozens of cities and became the basis for federal homelessness policy under HUD.
It remains the dominant framework for ending chronic homelessness in the U.S., though questions persist about costs and service intensity.
KWB follows the Pathways formula of housing without preconditions plus voluntary services. The model's decades of evidence is the backdrop for Utah's current investment.
