Has Finland really solved homelessness?

Finland’s coverage of ‘Housing First’ has typically been lauded in worldwide media, with claims that the nation has “solved homelessness”.

The actuality is that homelessness in Finland has been diminished at a file charge via the ‘Housing First’ precept, however round 4,000 in Finland stay and not using a house and the variety of long-term homeless people rose previously yr.

The ‘Housing First’ initiative has made the first focus of serving to homeless individuals getting them long-term, secure housing. The programme holds that solely after housing has been supplied ought to every other issues, akin to substance abuse or psychological well being points, be handled.

The authorities program has a objective of eradicating homelessness by 2027.

In Helsinki, the variety of homeless individuals modified from 4,340 in 2020 to three,950 on the finish of 2021. Despite the general variety of these experiencing homelessness diminishing, the numbers for long-term homelessness present a much less optimistic pattern.

In 2020, precisely 1,060 had been experiencing long-term homelessness whereas in 2021 that quantity was 1,320.

Jussi Lehtonen, the housing supervisor of No Fixed Abode (VVA) — an organisation working to supply housing options to the homeless — instructed Yle that he is aware of there’s a sizeable variety of individuals in powerful conditions across the Helsinki area.

“The number of the most vulnerable people has increased in the Helsinki metropolitan area,” Lehtonen mentioned.

According to Lehtonen, solely a small proportion of the homeless inhabitants spend all their nights on the streets or in stairwells. More usually, nights are spent in emergency lodging, shelters, longer-term choices and public bogs.

Individuals in conditions like this will apply for a spot in housing items, however the queue for the sort of housing is greater than a yr lengthy. For a long-term homeless individual, this queue means a yr on the streets and looking for lodging every evening.

The opening of a brand new short-term housing unit reveals that there are usually not sufficient inexpensive housing choices and housing help, in line with Teija Ojankoski, CEO of the Y-Foundation, which implements the ‘housing first’ strategy.

“This is a constant, big question in all growing urban areas. More affordable housing is needed,” Ojankoski defined to Yle.

The pandemic significantly affected long-term homelessness, in line with Lehtonen, and this isn’t the one difficulty affecting efforts to accommodate those that want it.

“One issue is the sote (social and healthcare) reform, which has critical issues that are still unclear for homelessness. Another concern is the situation of Ukrainian refugees, which may have longer term effects as well,” Ojankoski added.

The sote reform is the allocation of social and healthcare providers to new regional our bodies, as an alternative of municipalities. It nonetheless leaves the query open over whether or not the distribution of providers associated to homelessness fall underneath the municipalities or the newly shaped welfare areas.

The inflow of an estimated 80,000 Ukrainians is extra urgent for the present homeless state of affairs as municipalities are looking for doable residences to accommodate them.

Ojankoski assessed that the Ukrainians should not have a direct influence on the housing state of affairs to date, as they’re at present housed outdoors cities or on their outskirts.

“However, history has shown that when conditions level off, the demand for larger cities grows. There is a risk that the number of applicants for affordable housing will increase significantly and thus limit the access of housing to others,” Ojankoski emphasised.