Housing First has led to a dramatic reduction in long-term homelessness in Finland. Could it do the same in Wales? Matt Kennedy reports.
Housing first is a ‘does what it says on the tin’ approach to delivering long-term housing solutions to reduce homelessness. That is, start by giving people a home and then provide the necessary advice and support required to ensure people prosper. Originating in the USA, Housing First has been at the core of homelessness policy in Finland, which now stands head and shoulders above other countries in Europe in reducing homelessness.
The Housing First model is underpinned by how delivering a housing solution should be the first, life-changing step for an individual experiencing homelessness. On its website the Y-Foundation, one of the first to apply this principle, highlights its approach in practice. The organisation has around 16,300 apartments across 55 cities and municipalities for people experiencing homelessness. Central to the work of the organisation is the subletting of these apartments to its partners, largely municipalities and parishes.
The secret to the Housing First approach is a real paradigm shift away from seeing the provision of a home as the ultimate goal, the final step, following a period of sustained support. Rather, Housing First turns this step-by-step approach on its head, with housing being the first step needed as a precondition to a successful recovery process.
In Wales, it’s fair to say we’re no slouch on the issue. With our own legislation introduced under part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act a number of changes were introduced aimed at alleviating and reducing homelessness in Wales. These included a new duty to help anyone threatened with homelessness within 56 days, a duty to provide help to any homeless person to secure a home, a change to the intentionality test where this is now a power rather than a duty. Local authorities can now discharge their duty by finding suitable accommodation in the private rented sector. And finally, there are stronger duties on housing associations to collaborate with Local Authorities in carrying out their homelessness duties.
In August 2016, the first statistical release demonstrated the impact of the legislation, reflecting that:
- During 2015-16 for 4,599 households (65 per cent) homelessness was successfully prevented for at least 6 months
- 3,108 households (45 per cent) were successfully relieved of their homelessness and helped to secure accommodation that was likely to last for six months
- 1,245 (80 per cent) households were positively discharged and accepted an offer of permanent accommodation
In June this year the Finnish government released it’ Action Plan for Preventing Homelessness in Finland 2016-2019 (interestingly delivered through the Environment Ministry). The plan positively speaks of ensuring ‘comprehensive availability’ of specialist services to support people and a strengthening in the role played by ‘experts by experience’. The report recognises barriers such as the challenges posed by splitting services into sectors that all need to work together to address the socio-economic issues often at the root of long-term homelessness.
Reflecting on the programme implemented to reduce long-term homelessness the report highlights that during the 2008-2015 period the rate fell by 35 per cent. And last year, it notes that homelessness decreased to less than 7,000 people for the first time.
Those are certainly some eye-catching results. The problems faced are pretty similar to those on our own doorsteps in the housing sector. Challenges around the supply of affordable housing, availability of support services to meet demand and putting into practice multidisciplinary approaches, across sector in delivering services.
So with these commonalities comes hope that stepping forward in a similar direction can yield positive results that see services with housing supply at its core providing a person-centred approach to addressing and alleviating challenges around long-term homelessness. And in doing so, delivering life-changing results in partnership with individuals as well as releasing capacity and resources across other under-pressure services.
Juha Kaakinen, CEO of the Y Foundation, will be speaking at TAI 2017, sharing the approach behind Finland’s dramatic reduction in homelessness. For more information visit www.cih.org/tai.