What exactly is this solution that Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand particularly recommends?
This is the “Housing First” program (which could be translated as “home first” or “a roof over everything”), which offers each traveler not a temporary accommodation for one night, but a permanent, high-quality roof.
It is a program “that is a little difficult to be accepted, but not too much,” said Helsinki Mayor Juhana Vartiainen in an interview with The Canadian Press.
For her part, Annie Fontaine, an expert in social work at the University of Laval in Quebec, estimates that it is a “relevant and fairly complete model,” but “in the context we know today, it is a relatively unrealistic ideal.”
While Quebec cities cross swords with the Legault government to demand more measures and resources, the Finnish state and municipalities have set their priority for almost 40 years.
From 18,000 to 3686
In 1987 there were 18,000 homeless people in Finland when the government decided to reduce the number of homeless people to zero; However, at the end of 2022 there were 3,686, but only 492 of them slept outside.
Therefore, most homeless people “live with their friends or families,” said public diplomacy coordinator at the Finnish Embassy in Ottawa, Laura Kehusmaa.
“Homelessness is not visible in cities in Finland,” she continued.
In comparison, at the last count in October 2022, 10,000 people were visibly homeless in Quebec, an increase of 44% compared to 2018.
Finland, this small Nordic country, has achieved this by setting the goal of reducing homelessness to zero.
“This is the right way to combat the homeless problem,” said the mayor of the Finnish capital.
A simple formula
The premise of the Housing First program is simple: Before you try to solve a person's alcohol or drug problem or mental health problem, or find them a job, you must first provide them with a permanent home. . Not just accommodation for one night.
“This is really the basic idea of our policy: if we offer people housing, it will have very positive side effects,” said the mayor of Helsinki.
“Providing housing appears to solve many other previous problems,” he continued. We don’t assume that the person has already treated their alcohol problem.”
Their health will improve, their consumption will decrease, their chances of finding a job will increase, etc. Studies also show this.
“It was the positive effect on subsequent secondary problems that led us to create this analysis and arrive at our solution,” concluded Mr. Vartiainen.
Even the World Economic Forum, which is not suspected of being a radical left-wing organization, praises the Finnish solution.
In a bulletin, the organization reports the comments of a beneficiary of the program, which serve to support its validity and its premises, that is, before addressing the problems of a homeless person, he needs a permanent home.
“Being drunk is a pastime when you’re homeless,” says the survivor. If you’re homeless you can’t get sober, no one can.”
Researchers argue that both European Union countries and states such as Norway, Switzerland, Australia and Canada would be fully capable of eliminating homelessness by 2030 given their economic capacity.
In addition, Canada is signing the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to “ensure access to affordable, safe and adequate housing for all.”
However, the situation has worsened in recent years due to the large influx of asylum seekers into the country, the researchers note and recommend, in particular, increasing the stock of modest housing in large cities.
The Finnish model offers “inspiring work opportunities,” said Annie Fontaine, associate professor at the Faculty of Social Work and Criminology at the University of Laval.
However, there are “elements for transformation” as she doubts that this program could be transferred here.
Y Foundation
Housing First turns out to be a partnership work, a collaboration between the Finnish state, the municipalities and Y−Säätiö, i.e. the Y Foundation.
As of June 2023, this nonprofit organization provided 18,688 modest housing units at 58 locations, particularly for the homeless but also for people with disabilities. It housed more than 26,500 residents.
Y−Säätiö received a grant of 600,000 euros in 2023 from STEA, a Finnish government agency responsible for social assistance.
“There is no magic solution for all situations, but with a solid foundation we can improve the well-being of the homeless,” said the foundation’s former president, Juha Kaakinen, in an interview with the World Economic Forum.
“When people have a roof over their heads, they can deal with the challenges in their lives or worries about where they will sleep at night or where they will live next month,” added Y Foundation International Affairs Director, Juha Kahila , in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press
Once the person is assigned a home, teams care for them, conduct interviews, make diagnoses and provide any necessary care or support, the mayor of Helsinki explained.
Apartments
The Y Foundation gives a concrete example in its documentation: the construction of a building with 100 rental apartments for people who have experienced homelessness. The cost per apartment is approximately 150,000 euros (US$219,000), for a total of 15 million euros (US$21.9 million) for the building.
The buildings are located in normal residential areas with good public transport connections and are usually within walking distance of a supermarket and a pharmacy.
The average size of an apartment is 49.4 square meters and the rent is 14 euros ($20.44) per square meter.
There was resistance in Finland, as reported in particular by the World Economic Forum.
“In residential areas where buildings were built to house formerly homeless people, many surrounding citizens were dissatisfied,” one reads.
“Of course there were concerns,” Mr Kahila confirmed.
“But people quickly realized it was a good idea and a good use of taxpayer money when they saw the drop in crime rates.”
Subsidized housing units
In addition, the foundation has special communal apartments, so-called “assisted living units”, for people who need support due to drug problems or their advanced age.
These relatively large units are equipped with common areas and small private apartments, as well as bike storage, a sauna, a gym, etc.
The foundation supports and advises people if necessary and adjusts the rent to the tenant's ability to pay.
So yes, the rent is subsidized, yes, the construction is also subsidized, as is the support staff. For example, the Finnish state paid 10 million euros to around ten municipalities to pay employees for this purpose.
“It costs quite a lot, we have to be absolutely honest with the citizens who pay their taxes,” admitted the mayor of Helsinki.
“We explain to them that it is cheaper for public finances than treating the mental health problems of homeless people: they will work, they will be sick less, they will suffer less from drug problems,” he continued.
The foundation calculates that society saves up to 9,600 euros per person per year on all kinds of services, compared to the status quo where people have to fend for themselves on the streets.
“In Helsinki we are still impressed by this analysis, which suggests that it will not cost the city more in the long run,” concludes Mr Vartiainen.
However, he is aware that every society is different: in North America, “the political culture emphasizes the responsibility of each individual for his or her own life.”
An exportable model?
Professor Annie Fontaine also questions Quebec's ability to import the Finnish solution.
“There are so many structural, cultural and organizational aspects involved in this program that it is difficult to imagine its simple and direct application in our political and socio-economic context here.”
She warns against a “slightly mechanical vision” that idealizes the Finnish model. So it is misleading to think that “we take someone, house them and they can benefit from all the services and everything will be fine”.
We must “not polarize” the current debate and contrast zero homelessness with the full range of programs and services that currently exist in Quebec that are not limited to letting people sleep on the streets.
People are not “all formatted according to the ideal,” she argues. Its progression is “less linear” and homeless people are not immediately ready to live alone in their apartment or experience this form of isolation.
“Some sleep on the floor because they are unable to inhabit the space” and are cut off from their solidarity network. Ms. Fontaine recommends multiple choices for those who are not yet ready and therefore offers various forms of support and pathways.
“Too politicized”
“This debate is becoming too politicized,” she regrets, accusing the elected representatives of one camp or the other of “instrumentalizing” the hiking experience.
The scientist regrets the statements made during the Union of Municipalities (UMQ) summit on homelessness last autumn.
PQ leader Paul St−Pierre Plamondon then accused Health and Social Affairs Minister Lionel Carmant. of “lack of ambition” and insensitivity by rejecting the goal of zero homelessness.
People choose homelessness as a “way of life,” Mr. Carmant argued, then clarified that he was talking about an “extreme” example. He then claimed that he was instead working to “break the trend of increasing homelessness” and wanted to “work harder on prevention.”
Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand himself responded. “Some people find us too ambitious when we talk about zero homelessness,” he wrote in a Facebook message.
“I want to say today that there will never be too much ambition to take care of our world,” he emphasized. We can't commit to anything other than zero. In this case it would mean that we accept that there are still people on the streets.”
“I think it's virtuous, but sometimes we focus so much on zero that we find ourselves in a logic of data collection that dehumanizes the process, which leads to cynicism,” judges Ms. Fontaine.
“Utopian”
Mr. Marchand himself finally recognized in early December that eliminating the scourge in Quebec by 2025 was “utopian,” even though that was his commitment in 2021.
His city will stand out for innovative solutions by 2030, he argued, pointing out that Finland has at least achieved its 30-year plan.
But it was the Finnish state that set the course, not individual cities. However, the Quebec government, which is also the main financier and leader in the fight against homelessness, did not support Mayor Marchand's project.
“We have to do things differently and that requires a lot of courage on the part of politicians and decision-makers,” Mr Kahila said.
He believes that both the zero homelessness model and setting up your own foundation can also be applied in other countries.
The foundation buys or builds buildings, has development teams, but also a research unit on the subject of homelessness and is now expanding its expertise by also dealing with the issue of school drop-out.
“I don’t understand why it shouldn’t work in Canada or in Quebec City. It is not necessary to copy the model as it is, but the idea (principle) behind the Y Foundation is certainly duplicable.”
Similar experiences with the Y Foundation are emerging in Belgium, but also in the Netherlands, where the first apartments were recently purchased.
Without direct subsidies
Mr. Kahila assures that Foundation Y does not receive any direct government subsidies, but rather benefits from other advantages.
Among other things, the organization can obtain loans from the bank with a term of 40 years on preferential terms reserved for the state. It also leases the land to the community, also for a period of 40 years, at a rental price that is well below market costs.
After all these decades-long efforts, there were only 52 beds left in Helsinki's emergency shelters in 2016, compared to 2,120 in 1985.
In an essay entitled “Successful Public Policy in the Nordic Countries” published by Oxford University Press, the Finnish Housing First model is now seen as a “complete success” in the “political” sense, as there is agreement that “it is no longer “the case” meets with great resistance.”
“Stabilize”
However, the Finnish formula, this “complete success”, does not appear on the CAQ government’s radar screen for now.
“We need to stabilize the rise in homelessness and get the curve back down before we talk about eliminating it,” pleaded Minister Lionel Carmant last fall. One step at a time. If we want to take too big steps, it won’t work.”
The government is planning the next count of homeless people for 2024.
Will Helsinki Mayor Juhana Vartiainen go so far as to advise other elected officials to follow Finland's path?
“As a mayor, you have to be careful not to give too many recommendations to other mayors because every city is different. It may also not work in other cities.”