this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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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.
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.
Homeless in Finland are pretty much all addicts or people with mental illness. The problem is 100% same here than other developed nations.
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.
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)
Whereas in the USA, the only thing that has to fail for you to become homeless is your health.