给无家可归的酒鬼钥匙通往免费还配家具的公寓可能显得愚蠢、不公平或者两者皆有。那确实就是Ted Clugston，梅迪辛哈特（ Medicine Hat一个人口61000的加拿大城镇）的市长曾经所想的。但是经验已经改变了他的想法。不附带条件的房屋提供已经帮助该城镇即将实现（看到）它自己五年前设定的目标——到2015年终结无家可归。当时，每年超过1000人通过其无家可归庇护所，许多人处于流落大街中间。如果市政当局成功了，它将会成为北美第一个这么做的。
Handing [a] homeless alcoholic keys to a free, furnished flat may seem foolish, unfair or both. That was exactly[/certainly] what Ted Clugston, Mayor of Medicine Hat, a Canadian town of 61,000 people, used to think. But experience has changed his mind. No-strings hous[ing] offers have helped [bring] the town within sight of [a] goal it set itself five years ago, to end homelessness by 2015. At th[e] time, over 1,000 people passed through its homeless shelters each year, many /of them/ between spells [on] the street. If the municipality succeeds, it will be the first in North America to do so.
大多数长期无家可归者有心理疾病，酗酒或者药物上瘾，通常三者皆有。帮助他们的标准方式长期以来都是楼梯做法。要求他们戒酒戒毒，然后指导他们通过紧急庇护所和临时住处，直至他们被认为准备好住家。但是许多人拒绝报名参加。那些参加的人经常旧瘾复发。往往，少于一半的人一路成功到进入永久住家。
Most of the long-term homeless are mentally ill, alcoholic or drug-addicted, usually[/often] all three. The standard way to help them have long been the staircase approach. Requiring them to quit drink and drug, and then[/before] shepherding them through emergency shelters and temporary lodging, until they are deemed ready to [be] house[d]. But many refuse to sign up. Those who do often fall off the wagon. Typically, [fewer] than half /of them/ make it all the way to a permanent house[/home].
1992年，Sam Tsemberis，纽约大学一个精神病学教授，开始了一个项目，把那个过程颠倒了过来。房之途给贫困地区露宿街头的人配有家具的公寓。医疗保健，瘾症治疗，以及学习烹饪、付账单等等的帮助也被提供，但是不作要求。五年之后，88%的人保持有家可住。自此以后，世界各地数十个城市也看到了类似的成功，此后渐渐被人所知为“住房第一”。
In 1992, Sam Tsemberis, a professor of psychiatry [at] New York University, started a programmed that turned that sequence [on] its head. /The/ Pathways to Housing [gave] rough sleepers furnished flats in poor districts. Medical care, treatment for addi[c]tion and help [in] learn[ing] /how to/ cook, pay the bills and so home [were] also provided[/offered], but not required. [After] Five years /later/, 88% /of them/ remain[ed] housed. Since then, dozens of cities around the world have seem similar success [with what] ha[s] come to be known as housing first.
8.15
homeless/homelessness/between spells on the streets/rough sleepers
a free furnished flat/home/house/lodging
Medicine Hat, a Canadian town of 61,000/municipality
No-strings housing/be offered, not required
offer/give/provide
helped bring the town within sight of a goal
homeless shelters /
mentally ill, alcoholic or drug-addicted, often all three
standard way/staircase approach
quit drink and drugs/ fall off the wagon/make it all the way to
shepherding/guiding
emergency shelters/temporary lodging /a permanent home/remained housed
turned that sequence on its head.
Pathways to Housing
help in learning to cook, pay bills and so on
have seen similar success
with what has come to be known as "housing first"
