“In #Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment and counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

Make sure everyone understands this — It’s costing us far too much to NOT provide housing and supports to those who are homeless.

https://scoop.me/housing-first-finland-homelessness/

#homelessness #cities #housing #HousingFirst

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me

In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

scoop.me
@BrentToderian OK, Finland! We have 23,000 in NYC alone in shelters every night...
@prokofy @BrentToderian I wonder if there's enough vacant square footage to provide *housing* not just shelter for those 23,000.
What are the costs from those 23,000 people being unhoused an who are those costs paid to?
@bobo_of_id @BrentToderian The city maintains shelters and hotels for the homeless that are paid for by tax dollars. Great to simplify the problem of homelessness as not having a home but often there is a cluster of complex problems that you can't ignore. Working people don't have affordable homes in NYC so it's an even greater complex problem than solutions from other countries would seem to provide.
@prokofy @BrentToderian it sounds like their employers are vastly benefitting from this situation by not having to pay them enough to have housing
@bobo_of_id @BrentToderian Not all the employers are evil giant corporations. Life is more complex.
@prokofy @BrentToderian even small employers, or those engaged in noble causes, are not entitled to someone's labor for less money than it takes to be alive. Any gap there has to be made up by someone. Now if we had a universal basic income, and the necessities of life were already covered, then it would make sense. But we aren't in that situation
@bobo_of_id @BrentToderian It''s unlikely that anyone will pay the "universal basic income" or that a liberal democratic society will vote for this kind of society, it's not realistic. It's not that employers, small or large, are necessarily "entitled"; it's that they live in a world of real expenses that you may not live in. Have you ever run a business? Have you ever worked in a store? The world is more complex than the notion of "the Man" against "the little guy".
@prokofy @BrentToderian I know their expenses are real, their employees are one of those expenses.
If they can't pay them enough to be alive, who's closing that gap? Because it's getting closed one way or another. Right now it's getting closed poorly with a mixture of society paying and the employee dying slowly in poverty.
It being complex doesn't make it not exploitation, it's just complex exploitation.