No Fixed Address · Episode 8 of 11 · 23 min
How Finland Nearly Ended Homelessness — and Why It's Rising Again
Finland came closest to solving homelessness. From 2008 it adopted national Housing First and converted emergency shelters into permanent apartments, and homelessness fell for eleven straight years. In 2025 it rose about 20% in a year after cost-of-living pressure and cuts to housing and income support, showing that solutions are only as durable as the benefits behind them.
Who's who
- Juha KaakinenLed Finland's national homelessness program, later chief executive of the Y-Foundation
- Petteri OrpoFinnish prime minister whose government made the benefit cuts
Where it happens
- Finland+5 more episodesOnly EU country where homelessness declined for years
- Alppikatu 25, Helsinki, FinlandFormer Salvation Army hostel reopened in 2012 as about 80 flats
Timeline
- 2007-2008The Name on the Door report recommends Housing First and a national program launches
- 2010The Alppikatu 25 hostel closes; it reopens in 2012 as permanent flats
- 2008-2023Homelessness falls year after year, the only such trend in the EU
- 2024The decline stalls as austerity measures begin to bite
- February 2025Statistics show homelessness up about 20%, the largest rise recorded
Still debated
Skeptics say Finland is small, homogeneous and rich in social housing, though others argue the real variables are housing supply and political will. Austerity is the strongest explanation for the 2025 rise, and Finland counts hidden homeless, so comparisons with U.S. counts are uneven.
← PreviousHow Houston Cut Homelessness by 63%Next →Japan's Hidden Homeless and the Problem With Counting
