A Big Step Towards Solving Homelessness
I think the biggest and most important first step that we can take to solve homelessness in America is to provide longer-term, private housing for those in need. A couple days ago I found an article about how Finland has reduced their homeless population by 35% since implementing their “Housing First” policies in 2008. Housing First provides unconditional, private apartments and facilities. They realized that short-term or night shelters do not provide a stable ground for people experiencing homelessness to jump off of. The program leader, Juha Kaakinen, said this about their approach: “We decided to make housing unconditional…to say, look, you don’t need to solve your problems before you get a home. Instead, a home should be the secure foundation that makes it easier to solve your problems.” I think we saw an example of this in the documentary “Sheltered,” when Elizabeth moves into her own temporary apartment.
Unfortunately, this policy is probably very unlikely to be implemented in the U.S. to the extent it’s implemented in Finland. There’s a very popular, harmful belief in the U.S. that people have to work for everything they have, and if they can’t afford what they need to survive they just aren’t working hard enough, or they don’t “deserve” it. Very basic, necessary services are often very difficult to get for free in America.
However, there are still attempts to make this a reality in the U.S. Although not as widespread and effective as in Finland, “permanent supportive housing” programs do exist across the country. Since 2007, these programs have lowered the homeless population by 8%. If these programs received more funding and more housing was able to be built, this could be a huge and crucial step towards solving homelessness in America.
Map of supportive housing projects in Illinois: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f68131fa000c4b86bc41c552dc1c6789
Article about Finland’s policies: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness
The article you found about Housing First in Finland was really insightful! I agree that long-term, unconditional housing is a crucial aspect of stability and can serve as a foundation for progress. Based on what we've learned in class so far, I would say that either that or increasing access to support services, such as mental health resources and medical services, are the most important step towards solving homelessness. Those services were mentioned in the article as well, so it was interesting to see that the measures important locally also apply to other countries!
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