Finland developed the Housing First model for “curing” homelessness. It recognizes chronic homeless as a disease closely linked to a lack of permanent personal shelter. The model proposes that the disease can be cured, and that further lapses into homelessness can be prevented, most effectively from the security of a personal home.
Housing First starts with just that — a personal, permanent home first. It is the necessary platform for the next essential phase of the model: physical and health supports that will assist people to keep living in their housing.
Housing First has been so widely adopted in many countries that it often sucks much of the oxygen (a.k.a. financing) from other housing assistance programs and models. But from a nation-based perspective, not all Housing First models are the same. As a result, a Housing First program may not (and often does not) entirely resemble the model developed in Finland, either in its implementation or its effectiveness.
Recently we published a post that explains some of the differences of the program as applied in Finland, as compared with the implementation of Housing First in the United States1.
Finnish housing workers spoke recently at the Hawaii Homeless Awareness and Housing Solutions Conference, offering a further opportunity to expand upon the differences between Housing First in Finland and America. Finland has four times more people than Hawaii. There are 5,000 homeless people in Finland and 15,000 in Hawaii. None of the 5,000 homeless people in Finland live on the streets.
Here are some insights from the Finnish housing team who attended the Hawaii conference, provided by KITV Island Television: Finland delegation brings new homeless housing ideas to Hawaii
