“This is the basic idea of our policy: if we give people homes, there will be very positive side effects,” Vartainen said.
He said giving people apartments will improve health, reduce drug and alcohol use and increase people’s chances of finding work. He said once someone is given a home, there is a team to ensure they receive the care and support they need.
When Finland first started tackling the problem in 1987, there were 18,000 people experiencing homelessness in the country. By the end of 2022, that number had fallen to 3,686 people in the country of 5.5 million people, but only 492 people had spent the night outdoors.
In Quebec, 10,000 people were visibly homeless as of the provincial government’s last count in October 2022, an increase of 44 per cent from 2018.
Annie Fontaine, a social work professor at Laval University, said Quebec could learn lessons from the Finnish model, but it’s “a relatively unrealistic ideal given the circumstances we’re currently experiencing.” He said that.
“There are many structural, cultural and organizational aspects to this program that make it difficult to imagine a straightforward application in the political and socio-economic context here,” she said in an interview. .
Fontaine cautions against idealizing the Finnish model, saying it’s a mistake to think that just by letting someone into your home, everything else will automatically fall into place.
She says everyone’s experience of homelessness is different, and the path out of it may not be linear. Some people experiencing homelessness are not ready to live alone in an apartment and feel alone.
“Some people sleep on the floor because they can’t live in that space,” she says.
Fontaine said he believes the best approach is to offer multiple options through different routes and forms of aid.
The Housing First model is a partnership between the Finnish state, municipalities, and a professional organization known as the Y Foundation (Y-Säätiö in Finnish).
As of June 2023, the nonprofit had provided 18,688 units of low-cost housing to 26,500 people, most of whom would have been experiencing homelessness.
“People can overcome life’s challenges when they have a roof over their head and don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep that night or where they’re going to live next month,” the Y Foundation said in an interview.
The group’s building is located in a general residential area, causing opposition from nearby residents.
“There were certainly concerns,” Kahira said. “But people saw the crime rate drop and quickly realized it was a good idea and a good use of their tax dollars.”
In addition to individual apartments, the foundation has large spaces that include small private apartments and common areas. These spaces are typically aimed at the elderly and people with addictions who need support.
Although the model has initial costs, the foundation estimates that the program could save Finland up to 9,600 euros (about $14,000) per person each year.
Kahira said he believes a dedicated foundation like his could help bring the zero-homelessness model to other places.
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in Canada or Quebec City,” he said. “You don’t have to copy the model exactly, but the idea behind the Y Foundation can be completely replicated.”
Marchand, who pledged during his 2021 campaign to end homelessness in Quebec City by 2025, said in early December that his promise may have been a bit “utopian.”
There is also no sign that Finland’s approach is attracting state attention.
Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant said last fall that Quebec needed to slow the rise in homelessness before doing more.
“If you want to take too big a step, it’s not going to work,” Carmant said at the time.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2023.
Patrice Bergeron, Canadian Press