"In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. The reason: The country applies the "Housing First"

[applegrove]

https://urbanists.social/@Cr_Sky/114470689599247972

Cr Sky
@[e-mail]
"In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. The reason: The country applies the “Housing First” concept. Those affected by homelessness receive a small apartment and counselling – without any preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected thus make their way back into a stable life. And: All this is cheaper than accepting homelessness."

[Cha]

1. What a Concept... Good on Finland.

TY

[Grins]

2. Probably cheaper in the long run?

Love to know….

[haele]

8. Well, it's cheaper if you care about homeless or a stable society.

But if you're part of a smallish cadre of amoral wealthy "citizens" that have taken over a large diverse country, and you don't think of anyone who does the menial work that makes your life comfortable or keeps your bank account humming along, the homeless are just an annoyance. Like an infestation of ants in your pool house on a hot weekend.
But darn it, you can't just exterminate those useless pests...
We are becoming that country.
The one where more than 60% of the country is in shanty hut poverty and 30% are not far from that; where starving teenage boys who are so malnourished they look all of nine become pickpockets because there's no one in their family that can find work that isn't associated with crime - and they end up casually shot by police in the street if they get caught.
The one where "Government" is comprised of wealthy criminals, or media moguls and business owners with international ties, sending their kids to civilized countries like Finland or Canada for education.
I've been to a country like that in the last century. I don't want to live in one. But poverty is already becoming a felony crime, and pretty soon just being middle class will be a misdemeanor. After all, that's a tenet of the Prosperity Gospel.
Very few people with the funds, network, or talent to fix the problem really seem to have the want to.

[BurnDoubt]

16. I applaud your Take...

No part of MAGA is Christian, and if you're one, you're NOT the other. Prosperity Gospel is written by the Anti-Christ and practiced by Deplorables.
The Beatitudes are for Woke Freaks.
"He's not heavy... He's a useless eater."
Jesus MIGHT be in El Salvador right now.

[haele]

26. A Petty God makes a Petty Man -

A Merciful God makes a Merciful Man.
A Chaotic God makes a Madman.
Thus, if your God's only goal is to be worshiped through the fickle and transitory "ownership" of Fame and Money, that's the focus of "your soul" and basis of all your actions and thoughts in your life as a believer.
That's the primary tenet of the Prosperity Gospel.

[malaise]

23. Great post

Rec

[Silent Type]

3. Good article. I can see some states backing loans, lotteries, etc., but not many. Hope someday

we do something effective.

From article:

“Homeless people turn into tenants with a tenancy agreement. They also have to pay rent and operating costs. Social workers, who have offices in the residential buildings, help with financial issues such as applications for social benefits.

“Juha Kaakinen is head of the Y-Foundation. The NGO receives discounted loans from the state to buy housing. Additionally, social workers caring for the homeless and future tenants are paid by the state. The Finnish lottery, on the other hand, supports the NGO when it buys apartments on the private housing market. The Y-Foundation also receives regular loans from banks. The NGO later uses the rental income to repay the loans.”

[JanMichael]

21. Love the use of lottery funds.

Here we underfund ( 60 percent state funded in NC with a little over 20% county and the balance federal) public schools and call the lottery the education lottery. I think that's part of the 60%. So no use of that for housing.

[Deuxcents]

4. The happiest people in the world, they say. Instead of being homeless, they are productive and and able

To get out of a situation instead of spiraling even further into hopelessness. Too woke for us to even consider..we’d rather just shove em out of sight.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Seeing homeless people doesn't make anyone happy, let along being homeless. . . . nt

[applegrove]

6. The Finns keep winning "where are the happiest people

in the world" sweepstakes. And they are the happiest because of policy like this. I think that is what they meant.

[Deuxcents]

10. I think so, too. Productive people are happier, educated people are happier, healthcare makes people healthier

Such an easy concept but in reality, it works. Priorities are not for the people..they’re for profits here

[fierywoman]

7. The Finns are also among the very best educated in the world.

[dchill]

9. Sounds kinda socialist - and kinda Christian.

[Woodycall]

13. Yeah. The bastards!

[dchill]

14. Buncha commies!

[Scalded Nun]

11. Treating your citizenry humanely with respect and compassion will always yield long-term savings, benefits and

a happier society.

Which is precisely why that approach is demonized in this country by the right.

[Celerity]

12. happiest countries in the world in 2025

https://www.afar.com/magazine/the-worlds-happiest-country-is-all-about-reading-coffee-and-saunas




https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world

[SunSeeker]

15. Reducing the number of homeless people by giving them homes is the obvious answer.

But in the US, homelessness and poverty are considered moral failings, so we want to punish them. Of course, in the end, we only punish ourselves. Homelessness costs us more money than treating the problem logically and humanely. And living among homeless misery has psychological costs as well.

[Mosby]

18. In the US, homlessness is highly correlated with substance abuse.

Homelessness and substance use are often described as intricately related (Taylor et al., 2018). There is a widely accepted view that substance use has been regarded as both a cause and consequence of homelessness. In numerous studies, more than two-thirds of homeless individuals have reported that substance use had been a major cause of their homelessness (Khezri et al., 2020; Rew et al., 2001; Rosario et al., 2012; Santa Maria et al., 2018). Other studies have also stated that substance use had been a consequence of homelessness rather than a cause. Indeed, while these studies did have supporting evidence there is still a lack of suitable data that analyse substance use in the homeless population considering the different settings, locations and levels of homelessness (Prangnell et al., 2017; Tyler, 2013). Individuals experiencing homelessness are a difficult population to reach and for that reason many of the studies tend to be small-scall cross-sectional surveys with specific intentions (Aldridge, 2020).

A US based study found that alcohol prevalence ranged from 8.7 % to 84.8 % and substance use prevalence ranged from 4.5 % to 63.3 % among homeless population (Santa Maria et al., 2018). With drug overdose being the leading cause of death among the homeless, knowing the prevalence rate of substance use would better enable the understanding of the interactions between the overlapping issues (Laporte et al., 2018)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667118223000107

[SunSeeker]

19. Substance abuse is a lot harder to treat when the person is homeless.

There is a strong correlation between substance abuse and homelessness in Finland as well. That is one of the reasons the Finns give them a home first. https://ysaatio.fi/en/housing-first/homelessness-in-finland/

[haele]

27. Substance abuse also correlates to self-medication.

Chronic Pain, Situational Depression or other Mental Health issues.
All of which could be fixed with low cost health treatment access and robust guilt free social services to be able to step in when someone hits a bump in the road.
Everyone will experience bad luck, find themselves in an "unwinnable" bad situation, or just done something stupid or shameful enough they want to run away and pretend it never happened. That's what Social Services should be there to assist.
To help keep personal problems from spiraling out of control and adversely affect the individual and/or the community at large.

[BurnDoubt]

17. Imagine if we actually punished the REAL criminals?????

[madville]

20. They also take in very few refugees/asylum seekers

They also take in very few refugees/asylum seekers so they keep the population needing housing under very tight control in that regard.

[Native]

22. So many countries do things better than us and at less cost.

[Passages]

24. Wait a minute...government helps people who have no home get one

and then they make their way back into a stable life??

No way. This is not possible.

[DFW]

25. That was exactly my wife's job

She was a social worker in Germany for decades, specifically working with homeless and long-term unemployed. It had to have been one of the most thankless jobs in the world. She said a small portion of the people sent her way actually wanted to be helped, and the rest were a mixture of hopeless addicts and con artists trying to game the system into giving them eternal welfare and benefits with an endless supply of excuses and cheaply-bought “medical certificates” stating why a healthy 35-year-old was unable to do anything but watch TV from a sofa and make babies.

She kept at it for the few victories where she was actually able to get people to clean up, get off their dope, get jobs, and maintain them. They were not the majority. She never asked for thanks or recognition, and finally retired in frustration after decades of seeing her superior recruit “volunteers” to help repair his own house on off hours.