EXPLORING EFFECTIVE SYSTEMS RESPONSES TO HOMELESSNESS

HIGH-LEVEL GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Yet Finland may now be approaching the threshold of what can be achieved through
innovation and coordination. This threshold exists because of another policy issue,
one that is fundamentally important in setting the entirety of the strategic response
to homelessness into a wider policy context: Finland lacks a sufficient supply of
affordable housing. This shortage of affordable housing is relative. Finland has
more social housing and social protection (welfare) systems that enable poorer and
unemployed citizens to rent housing privately, but it still has more housing need
than can be met by the existing housing supply. Access to the private rented sector
and social rented sector may be further enhanced for homeless people in Finland.
There are innovations around access to private renting that can be introduced
and allocation systems for social housing can also be altered to improve access for
homeless people; however, both the social rented and private rented sectors have
multiple roles. They exist to serve general housing need alongside any potential role
in meeting the housing needs of homeless people and while there is not enough
affordable housing for the general population there will never be enough housing
for homeless people (Pleace et al., 2015).
There are innovations
around access to
private renting that
can be introduced and
allocation systems for
social housing can also
be altered to improve
access for homeless
people; however, both
the social rented and
private rented sectors
have multiple roles.
Finnish housing standards and affordable housing supply are good by European
and especially by global standards; 4.9% of Finns spend 40% or more of their
household income on housing costs, compared to a European Union average across
28 EU member states of 11% of population. Only 1% of Finns are recorded as
living in severe housing deprivation, compared to a European Union average of 5%
(Eurostat, 2015). Yet pressures on the housing stock are real, particularly in the most
expensive housing markets like that found in Helsinki, and while those problems
persist a lack of housing will ultimately undermine even the most coordinated and
comprehensive homelessness strategy.
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