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Housing First in Finland and Y-Foundation TAI 2017 Conference

Cardiff 26.4.2017

Juha Kaakinen, CEO

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Homelessness in

Finland • Finland's Solution to Homelessness

• How Finland fixed homelessness

• What can the UK learn from how

Finland solved homelessness?

• ¿Cuál es el país europeo sin

población viviendo en la calle?

• Mal-logement : le modèle finlandais

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Homelessness in Finland

• Homelessness has decreased:

• In recent years Finland has been the only European country where

homelessness has decreased

• 2015: 6785 single homeless persons, 424 families

• Wide definition of homelessness: 80% living temporarily with friends and

relatives

• 1554 women

• 1399 young people (under 25 y)

• 1803 immigrants

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Homelessness in Finland

• LONG-TERM HOMELESSNESS HAS DECREASED:

• Definition of long-term homelessness: person who has been homeless

for over 1 year or recurrently homeless within two years and has serious

health and social problems

• From 2008 to 2016: long-term homelessness has decreased with 1589

persons (35%)

• Housing retention rate 82% (only 18% returned back to homelessness)

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Paavo 2008 - 2015

• A government programme coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment

• In partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Criminal Sanctions Agency, the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, RAY (Finland´s Slot Machine Association), 11 cities with highest numbers of homeless people, the Church, NGOs and private companies

• Committed partners and multidisciplinary work over administrative and professional boundaries

• Sub-projects for preventing youth homelessness and homelessness of ex-prisoners

• A development network

• Research supporting development work

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Targets

• To halve long-term homelessness by 2011 and end it by 2015

• Conversion of all shelters and dormitory-type hostels into

supported housing units

• Reinforcing Housing First –approach as a mainstream organizing

principle for housing and support services for homeless people

• Quantitative targets:

• 2500 new dwellings, supported housing units or care places in 10

(2008-2011)/11(2012-2015) major cities

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Resources

• PAAVO I (2008-2011) total funding

appr. 170 M€ including financing from

state authorities and cities

• PAAVO II (2011-2015):

• 22M € investment grants from The

Housing Finance and Development

Fund of Finland for construction of new

housing units and renovation (max

50%)

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Resources

• 10 M€ grants for salary costs of support workers from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Health (max 50%)

• 32,3 M€ grants for buying scattered housing from the private market from the Slot Machine Association (RAY)

• 18,6 M€ grants for development projects (RAY)

• Own funding from project cities (50% of personnel costs)

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Measures and results

• Housing: • Over 3500 new

apartments built / purchased for homeless people

• Services: • 300 new professional

support workers in housing social work

• Housing advice services have prevented 200 evictions per year

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Measures and results

• Structural reforms:

• Housing First principle (as we understand it) has been established

• Shelters have been replaced by supported housing units

• Social rehabilitation processes (different forms of support work) have been initiated

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Supported housing units 1014

Youth housing 435

Supported scattered housing in city rental

housing 1063

Supported scattered housing in NGOs etc.

626

Independet housing in city rental housing

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COMPLETED APARTMENTS AND APARTMENTS ALLOTTED TO USE IN THE PAAVO PROGRAM 2012-2015

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Housing options for Homeless persons in

Helsinki

Year Supported housing

Independent rental apartments

Hostels and shelters

1985

127 65 2 121

2008

552 2 033 558

2016

1 309 2 433 52

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Shelter renovation:

Why we wanted to get rid of shelters and

hostels?

• 2008: 600 bed places in hostels and shelters

• Now: service centre with 52 bed places for emergency use

• Living in a hostel or shelter is always a temporary solution

• A person living in a hostel is still homeless

• No privacy and very limited professional help in your problems

• Hostels sustain a culture of irresponsibility

• Renovation of hostels has increased public safety

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Housing first in Finland

• Housing as a basic social right

• Housing in normal surroundings

• Own independent rental apartment either in scattered

housing or in a supported housing unit

• Own rental contract (normally for unlimited time)

• Adequate support

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Housing first in Finland

• Ethical argument:

• Housing first treats formerly homeless people as normal citizens rather than as as clients or patients

• Housing is a basic human and social right

• A civilized state takes care of its most vulnerable inhabitants

• Economical argument:

• A study conducted by the Technical University of Tampere shows that housing with intensified support halves the use of social and health services compared to service-use during homelessness

• This equates to 14 000 euros of saving per person/year

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Forms of support • In scattered housing:

• Floating support, no ACT –team

• Use of normal basic health and social services

• The role of support worker (social worker) both personal support and case management

• Special services, expertise if needed

• In supported housing: on site personnel, social and health professional according to needs, different levels of support and service within the same house

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HF PATHWAYS/ HF FINLAND

• Customer choice self-determination,autonomy

• Special services (ACT-team) normal social and health services

• Scattered housing scattered housing and supported single-site

• Hostels and shelters housing

• Still part of the system no hostels, only emergency shelter

• Using existing housing stock also new building

• Tenants pay 30% of their tenants pay the rent (can get normal

• Income for the rent housing benefits

• Project based program/strategic level

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Dimensions of homelessness policy

HF (FIN)

Scattered housing

communal housing

supported housing

social housing

quantity

HF (NY)

quality

shelter

hostel

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Challenges

• There’s never too much money available

• ”To drink or not to drink”

• There is still a need for non-drinking options

• Where do all these long-term homeless people come from?

• For how long is a homeless person still regarded as homeless or ex-homeless after getting a flat of one’s own?

• Is there enough emergency accomodation?

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History of Y-Foundation

• Y-Foundation was founded in 1985

• Founding bodies:

• Five largest cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere and Turku

• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

• Finnish Red Cross

• The Finnish Association for Mental Health

• Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities

• Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT

• The Finnish Construction Trade Union.

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Y-Foundation is

• A non-profit social housing provider

• Builds and constructs affordable rental housing

• Owns 16 541 flats in 56 cities and municipalities

• (at the beginning of 2016 we purchased 8631 flats from another social housing provider)

• The staff of 120 employees is mainly based in Helsinki, 20 employees in 6 other cities

• Nationwide work is enabled by a wide network of partners: local authorities and housing companies, NGOs, church social work etc.

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The housing options of Y-Foundation

• Scattered housing bought form owner-occupied housing

companies (5300)

• Real estates: normal rental housing = affordable social housing

(9837)

• supported and service housing (1232)

• Support and services are arranged by local social services or

NGOs

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Single homeless people Y-Foundation's apartment

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Väinölä supported housing unit, Espoo

• Y-Foundation /

Salvation Army

• 35 apartments for

long-term homeless

persons

• 2014

Väinölä

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Ruoritie supported housing unit, Kotka

• Y-Foundation / Local social psychiatric association called Ituspy

• 29 apartments for people suffering from mental illness

• 2016

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Suoraman Helmi, Kangasala

• Y-Foundations rental

apartment company M2 /

Kangasala municipality

• 37 state subsidised “normal”

ARA rental apartments

• 19 service apartments for

disabled persons

• 2016

Suoraman Helmi

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New cooperation in employment and

construction • A new kind of agreement with a local property maintenance company

operating in metropolitan Helsinki region, the contract covers 89 real estates

• Price reduction in agreement that ensures employment for 20 young people

in garden maintenance.

• Cooperation with Helsinki City’s youth department

• A homeless young person (age between 18-25 years) gets an affordable rental

apartment and works about 20 hours per month

• Cooperation with 4 trade unions to contruct affordable social housing

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Jallukka rental ”rock music” house, Helsinki

• Y-Foundations rental apartment company M2 / ELMU live music foundation

• 74 affordable rental apartments

• State subsidised ARA production – income and property limits in tenant selection

• 2017

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The Future of Social Housing

• HF is ineffective without sufficient supply of social housing

• Social housing = affordable, good quality rental housing blocks in

normal surroundings (mixed housing areas)

• There is a need for an ethically conscious socially minded

leadership in social housing

• It is our job to take care of the most vulnerable people

• Social housing can make a big difference for individuals but also

show that it is possible to build a more inclusive future in our

societies

• Let’s make social housing social again!

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• diolch yn fawr!