The Finnish National
Homelessness Strategy
Nicholas Pleace, Marcus
Knutagård, Dennis P. Culhane
and Riitta Granfelt
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
About the Review
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Brought together academics from Finland, Sweden, the
UK and USA: Riitta Granfelt, Marcus Knutagård,
Nicholas Pleace and Dennis P. Culhane
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Two visits to Finland by international component of the
team
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Talked to policymakers, central and local government
level, homelessness service providers and homeless
people
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Visited services
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Reviewed available data
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
The Strategy
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Introduced in a context where homelessness had been
reduced to comparatively very low levels from 20,000 in
the 1980s to 8,000 by 2008 (approximate) in a
population of 4.96 million
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But long-term and repeated homelessness persisted,
45% of total homeless population estimated to be longterm in 2008
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So strategy targeted long-term homelessness, aiming to
halve levels by 2011 and end it altogether by 2015
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Expanded to address wider homelessness in 2012
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
The Strategy
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Impressive political coordination, bringing together
homelessness NGOs, Y Foundation, municipal and
central government
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Response has also been comprehensive, alongside the
focus on long-term homelessness:
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Development of successful preventative services
Specialist services for particular groups, e.g. young people and
former prisoners
A range of supported housing services
Innovative, but controversial use, of a Housing First model that
looks to have been effective
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Housing First
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Exact Fidelity with US model is not possible in EU
member states – too many differences - nor is it actually
the norm in US or Canada.
But some Finnish Housing First is congregate large,
dedicated apartment blocks, 80+ apartments
Criticised as not allowing social integration, separate
blocks keep formerly homeless people separate from
society, lots of high need people together means
management problems
Expected by some commentators not to work
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Key Findings
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Long term homelessness was substantially
reduced
Congregate Housing First services appear
stable – though there was some churn and
some management issues earlier on – most
long-term homeless people moved in and stayed
Significant resources were being put into these
congregate schemes however
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Key Findings
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Finland is perhaps the best example of a truly
coordinated homelessness strategy in the EU
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Highly coordinated
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Effective service mix to prevent and reduce
homelessness, including congregate/scattered Housing
First and housing-led services
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But ultimately reliant on getting enough suitable housing
fast enough, still limitations
•
Homelessness is changing, new issues, including
migration
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Key Findings
Source: ARA, 2015
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Report
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hdl.handle.net/10138/153258
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015
Thanks for Listening
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Nicholas Pleace, University of York
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Marcus Knutagård, Lund University
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[email protected]
http://www.soch.lu.se/
Dennis P. Culhane, University of Pennsylvania
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[email protected]
www.york.ac.uk/chp/
[email protected]
works.bepress.com/dennis_culhane/
Riitta Granfelt, Turku University
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[email protected]
http://www.utu.fi/
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Families, Housing and Homelessness
Dublin, 25th September 2015