EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE Families, Housing and Homelessness Dublin, 25th September 2015 The...

EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCEFamilies, Housing and Homelessness

Dublin, 25th September 2015

The Finnish National Homelessness Strategy

Nicholas Pleace, Marcus Knutagård, Dennis P. Culhane

and Riitta Granfelt



About the Review• Brought together academics from Finland, Sweden, the

UK and USA: Riitta Granfelt, Marcus Knutagård, Nicholas Pleace and Dennis P. Culhane

• Two visits to Finland by international component of the team

• Talked to policymakers, central and local government level, homelessness service providers and homeless people

• Visited services

• Reviewed available data



The Strategy • 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

• But long-term and repeated homelessness persisted, 45% of total homeless population estimated to be long-term in 2008

• So strategy targeted long-term homelessness, aiming to halve levels by 2011 and end it altogether by 2015

• Expanded to address wider homelessness in 2012



The Strategy• Impressive political coordination, bringing together

homelessness NGOs, Y Foundation, municipal and central government

• Response has also been comprehensive, alongside the focus on long-term homelessness:

• 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



Housing First 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



Key Findings 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



Key Findings• Finland is perhaps the best example of a truly coordinated

homelessness strategy in the EU

• Highly coordinated

• Effective service mix to prevent and reduce homelessness, including congregate/scattered Housing First and housing-led services

• But ultimately reliant on getting enough suitable housing fast enough, still limitations

• Homelessness is changing, new issues, including migration



Key Findings

Source: ARA, 2015



Report

hdl.handle.net/10138/153258



Thanks for Listening

Nicholas Pleace, University of York [email protected] www.york.ac.uk/chp/

Marcus Knutagård, Lund University [email protected] http://www.soch.lu.se/

Dennis P. Culhane, University of Pennsylvania [email protected] works.bepress.com/dennis_culhane/

Riitta Granfelt, Turku University [email protected] http://www.utu.fi/

EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE Families, Housing and Homelessness Dublin, 25th September 2015 The...

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