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Finland’s successful approach to ending homelessness catches eye of Quebec City (globalnews.ca)

submitted 9 months ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand has suggested that the solution to the crisis may be a Finnish model, which is a 'housing first' approach that aims to give everyone a home.

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 90 points 9 months ago

Never have I seen so many people with so many unworkable solutions to a problem take so long to come to the most obvious solution. Just give people homes. Don’t let people die on the street, it’s inhumane.

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 months ago

Sounds simple. But Finland is an insular society and has different social issues.

In my city, there was a push to put social housing in place, as most of the local homeless population lacked the skills to maintain a house by themselves. Mental illness and addiction together affect a very large part of the homeless population.

The result was that some people who sorely needed housing got some, and a lot of people refused to take part because they didn’t want to agree to other people’s rules.

And then the social housing attracted people from nearby communities so that it’s now full, but the majority of the local homeless from before the project started are still homeless.

Just saying that “just give everyone a home” may sound simple, but in reality is very complex.

[-] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 24 points 9 months ago

Homeless in Finland are pretty much all addicts or people with mental illness. The problem is 100% same here than other developed nations.

[-] swope@kbin.social 21 points 9 months ago

I think homelessness and despair cause mental illness and substance abuse. If we can prevent "normal" people from losing their homes, I think they would be more stable and able to take care of themselves long term.

Allowing homelessness is far more costly to everyone else than preventing it.

[-] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 12 points 9 months ago

Yes, many things have to have failed before person ends up homeless.

In Finland the positive side is that homelessness is near impossible due financial situation in Finland, state will always provide you enough welfare to have a home (system pays 80% of your rent if you are on welfare)