Finland’s Housing First Tackles Homelessness

A radical Finnish program to end rough sleeping called Housing First is capturing attention around the world, writes Charlie Duxbury. The program, under which authorities aggressively closed homeless shelters and did not require participants battling addictions to recover before receiving keys to a home, is working.

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Since the mid 1980´s tackling homelessness has almost continuously been a focus of Government programs in Finland. During recent years Finland has been the only country in Europe where homelessness has decreased.

The Finnish Housing First approach was introduced in 2007 by a working group comprised of “Four Wise Experts” as a solution for the most vulnerable homeless people. Permanent housing based on a normal lease was seen as a fundamental solution for each homeless person. Individually tailored support services, increasing the supply of affordable rental housing and preventive measures were also part of the approach. Since then, hostels have been converted into supported housing units with independent flats for the tenants. Several new ways to support people and to improve integration in the neighborhood have been developed. Homeless policies have been based on Housing First approach since 2008. The government’s PAAVO programmes (2008-2015) targeted long-term homeless people. The present national policy programme launched by the Government in June 2016 focuses on prevention of homelessness.

Comparable data on homelessness has been available since 1987 when there were almost 19 000 homeless people in the country. Since then the number of homeless people has decreased thanks to determined action plans. Also long-term homelessness has decreased significantly since the PAAVO programmes were introduced by the Finnish government, which made the Housing First approach the default for addressing homelessness in Finland.  There are almost no rough sleepers in Finland now.  Current data for homeless people – by which we mainly mean people living with family or friends, indicate that in 2016, the number of single people in these circumstances was 6684 and the number of families, 325. As the numbers show, we have achieved important reductions in homelessness, but we feel there is still important work to do.

Click here to read more: Action Plan for Preventing Homelessness in Finland 2016–2019

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