Finland's housing policy gets attention in Ireland

The Embassy of Finland in Dublin organised a seminar on homelessness in the end of October at the Ambassador's residence. The seminar gathered decision-makers, representatives of non-governmental organisations and journalists. The seminar managed to raise awareness of Finland's successful approach to tackling homelessness and has since led to both media and research enquiries.

In Ireland, homelessness is a growing issue and constantly in the headlines. In September 2018 there were 9698 homeless people, which is 21 % more than the year before. The increase in the amount of homeless people is mostly due to the rising costs of housing and the lack of social housing. The Embassy of Finland in Dublin organised a seminar on homelessness at the residence of Ambassador Jaana Teckenberg in cooperation with the Finnish Institute in London and Focus Ireland.

The seminar 'Tackling Homelessness through Housing First: Lessons from Finland and Ireland' gathered around thirty actors involved with homelessness: decision-makers, representatives of non-governmental organisations and journalists. Speakers at the event were Juha Kaakinen, CEO of Y Foundation, Bob Jordan, National Director of Housing First in Ireland and Dr. Ronni Greenwood from the University of Limerick.

Photo: Anne Mutanen
Seminar speakers Bob Jordan, Dr. Ronni Greenwood and Juha Kaakinen. Photo: Anne Mutanen
Seminar speakers Bob Jordan, Dr. Ronni Greenwood and Juha Kaakinen.

Housing First programme in Finland

Mr. Kaakinen gave a presentation on the implementation of the Housing First programme in Finland. He explained that Finland is the only country in the EU where homelessness is decreasing. According to Mr. Kaakinen, Finland decided to set an ambitious goal to eradicate homelessness instead of managing it and began to implement the Housing First programme on a large scale.

The idea of the Housing First programme is that a homeless person does not have to earn their right to accommodation by solving any problems or issues first. Instead, a permanent home is arranged to the person right away, which will then help in getting all those other problems fixed, too. According to Mr. Kaakinen, the programme has worked so well in Finland because the whole system was restructured around this main idea. While the homeless were given access to permanent housing, the majority of emergency accommodation were shut down. At the permanent housing sites of the programme there is also staff to support the tenants for example with mental health issues.

Finland as a model to Ireland

Mr. Jordan introduced the new Housing First National Implementation Plan, which aims at extending the existing programme to new areas. Dr. Greenwood, on the other hand, commented on both presentations and analysed the prerequisites and challenges of reducing homelessness in general. After excellent speeches, the floor was opened to questions and there was a lively discussion among the audience and the speakers.

Questions addressed for example how the programme managed to get the politicians from all party backgrounds behind it in Finland and whether Ireland should follow Finland's example in ambitious goal setting. The discussion as well as the speakers' comments showed admiration towards the Finnish model and willingness to take note of Finland's success also in Ireland.

The event was successful and  the seminar managed to raise attention of Finland's successful approach to tackling homelessness and has since led to both media and research enquiries. The programme is known in Ireland up to the ministerial level.

The Embassy would like to thank all the participants and partners!

The event received attention also in media. Journalist Hayley Halpin wrote this article at TheJournal.ie(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) and Colette Browne's article at Irish Independent(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)

This article was written by Pieta Salonen, intern at Embassy of Finland in Dublin