Treating housing as a human right is among proposals now up for public consultation, with a final plan on ending homelessness in Bermuda to be published in April.

The draft plan, available online at the Government’s website, includes proposals used by more than 40 countries.

“Rapid rehousing” leading to long-term accommodation, with limited recourse to temporary shelter, has been proposed as the best case for ending homelessness.

A draft plan tackling the issue also proposes adopting a “housing first” model to get people sleeping rough or with complex needs into permanent accommodation — a British tactic said to have an 80 per cent success rate.

A statutory duty of care on agencies such as the Bermuda Housing Corporation to provide shelter for the homeless would “place a legal duty on public entities to provide suitable long-term housing”.

The plan also calls for a commission is to be tasked with implementing the final proposal.

The blueprint was put together by the charity Home in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Social Development and Seniors, with input from more than 400 people either homeless or deemed at risk.

It will be open for public review and input until the end of February 2024.

Tinée Furbert, the minister, said the “road map to end homelessness”, which impacts about 650 people on the island, took evidence-based research into account as well as two previous rounds of community consultation.

She was joined by Denise Carey, the executive director of Home, who said the 87-page draft plan was the result of “the remarkable spirit of compassion and collaboration”.

The proposal describes homelessness as “both a cause and effect of poverty, social and health inequality”, reflecting social injustice and systemic racism.

“In the more complex cases, it is often because of trauma, and particularly childhood trauma associated with poverty.”

It notes the economic toll, particularly from high-cost interventions such as healthcare and the courts, adding: “Simplistically, it is more expensive for the taxpayer to do nothing rather than to end homelessness for good”.

Arthur Wightman, chairman of Home, called the release of the plan “a critical milestone for Bermuda”.

“This plan is a declaration that Bermuda will no longer accept homelessness, nor the suffering of families and individuals, infringement of basic human rights and economic damage it causes.

“Work on this project started 2½ years ago, driven by a vision that homelessness should be rare and when it does occur, brief.”

He added: “The snowballing support Home has seen from donors, helping agencies, the community and our clients is a firm indication that many in Bermuda share this vision.”

Specific properties have yet to be earmarked, but the plan notes that the island has “an insufficient supply of housing at social rent levels”, and lacks a national register of landlords.

The plan adds that, at present, the island lacks appropriate statutory protections for landlords as well as renters.

It calls for annual targets to be set for affordable housing, as well as rent setting for low-income people or those on financial assistance.

A “property portal” would track affordable housing, with regulations to set a minimum allocation of accommodation catering to the homeless.

Existing policies for addressing homelessness are described as “fragmented”, with the plan calling for “an overall public policy whereby homelessness is a rarity and when it does occur, it is brief”.

The document also highlights a longstanding “absence of will towards ending homelessness” — suggesting a concerted campaign to “reframe the issues from the homeless sector to broaden public understanding of homelessness to build empathy and support”.