from Hacker News

Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline

by astigsen on 1/8/20, 3:09 PM with 146 comments

• by maxharris on 1/8/20, 3:34 PM

  To help contextualize this so I understand the situation better, can someone compare and contrast what treatment for debilitating mental health issues such as schizophrenia looks like in Finland vs. the US?

  The second issue is, In the last 10 years, the “Housing First” programme provided 4,600 homes in Finland. In 2017 there were still about 1,900 people living on the streets. In the US, there are something like half a million people living on the streets.

• by mnm1 on 1/8/20, 6:26 PM

  Finland is the only country in the EU that has figured out that people need to fulfill the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy first before starting on the higher levels? Are you fucking kidding me? A college student could come up with this plan. Why isn't everyone doing it? Oh yes, I forgot about the part where it's necessary for society and government to be cruel to the homeless to demonstrate to everyone else that ... blah blah something or other stupid argument from cruel, heartless, unempathetic assholes goes here.

• by teekert on 1/8/20, 4:19 PM

  I recently, with work, did a tour around Eindhoven (the Netherlands) together with Homeless people. I learned that one never has to be homeless in that city, there are many locations to get food, shelter and help. The homeless people on the streets have such severe ADHD that sleeping halls stress them out, or they have other mental issues, can't deal with authority, have a severe lack of trust or fear for the healthcare system, etc. It is impossible for a healthy mind to stay homeless (unless by choice).

• by CryptoPunk on 1/8/20, 4:43 PM

  >>The country applies the “Housing First” concept.

  California also applies "Housing First", and it doesn't work. According to some reports, it gas led to social housing coming to be rife with drug use and dominated by drug dealers, because previous restrictions on drug use on premises were lifted as part of the Housing First philosophy.

• by JordanFarmer on 1/8/20, 4:09 PM

  Where is the part on how Finland has been deporting Iraqi refugees.

• by gridlockd on 1/8/20, 3:45 PM

  The headline is factually wrong. The truth is that Finland has reduced the population of homeless by 35% over ten years[1].

  While I applaud easing the bureaucratic hurdles in giving people access to homes, in many cases not being offered a home is not the reason why people are homeless. It's simply not "as easy as that".

  [1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle...

• by metalrain on 1/8/20, 3:49 PM

  While homelessness might be in decline and shelters have more capacity, you can still find people sleeping on the floors of public pay-per-use toilets in Finland. So no, homelessness is not ended and probably never will be.

• by maxharris on 1/8/20, 3:35 PM

  I take issue with the practice of labeling everyone on the street as "homeless", because the truth is that there are many different causes:

  * battered spouses fleeing domestic violence

  * runaway teenagers

  * veterans whose mental and physical injuries

  * debilitating mental illness

  * impossibly high housing costs due to NIMBYism and local regulations

  * alcoholism, drug, gambling addiction

  That's not an exhaustive list, of course. We have to start by changing the way we speak about this. We need labels that strike at the heart of each issue, that capture the thing that's really going on, not just the surface-level phenomenon.

  I live in LA, and I don't own a car, and many people that live on the street don't either. Does that mean that it's valid to label us all as "carless"?

  I believe that the words we use matter, because they shape our thinking, and therefore the policies that we ultimately enact. Calling everyone "homeless" leads to attempts to treat multiple diseases with the same cure, and I believe that is ultimately doomed to failure.

• by at-fates-hands on 1/8/20, 3:49 PM

  For some perspective:

  Finalnd's military budget: 300 million

  US military budget: 700 BILLION

  The US could dump a lot of money into these social services to address people who are homeless, drug addicts, and other people on the fringes of society.

  We are however, constantly put in a place where other nations depend on us for their security. As such, they don't have to have a massive defensive budget when they can rely on us to take care of them.

  If we had a military budget that was more inline with simply keeping our own country safe, we would have a ton more money to take care of the people who really need it.

• by Bostonian on 1/8/20, 3:49 PM

  "Those affected by homelessness receive a small apartment and counselling – without any preconditions."

  I doubt it will work in Finland in the long run, and even if it does, Finland and the U.S. have very different populations. Most Americans work to put a roof over their head, and it's unfair to them to "unconditionally" give some people housing. It's also a big disincentive to work. The current unemployment rate is 3.5%. There are homeless shelters to prevent people from freezing to death, but that's very different from giving someone their own apartment. Millions of people would love a "small apartment" in Manhattan or San Francisco but cannot afford to live there. Are you going to allocate the apartments to people who are not contributing to society?