This article focuses on the way professional practices were reconfigured in the experimental phase of Housing First (2011-2015) with the aim of bringing together Housing First and Recovery. How and to what extent did intervention teams call upon professional values related to the philosophy of recovery while also inventing new rules for their professions? The new policies and operational orientations for intervention at different moments of the program highlighted the knowledge acquired from experience and the desire of actors to be autonomous whether they were tenants, peer-support, or professionals. In this context, teams with a “recovery orientation” tried to validate their own criteria for autonomy in contrast to the criteria produced by mainstream public policies. Their position was possible despite the fact that their intervention depended in part on partnerships and on an institutional framework of governance.
Keywords
- recovery
- experiential knowledge
- autonomy
- professional rules