While most wealthy nations watched their homelessness numbers climb over the past two decades, Finland did something no other E.U. country managed: it reduced homelessness by roughly 75%. The Finland Housing First policy, launched in 2008 C.E., now stands as one of the clearest demonstrations in modern social policy that chronic homelessness is not an intractable problem — it is a solvable one, given the right framework and the political will to sustain it.
At a glance
- Finland Housing First: Since launching in 2008 C.E., Finland reduced its homeless population from nearly 8,000 single people and 300 families to roughly 3,806 people total — about 0.06% of the national population.
- Helsinki shelter conversions: The capital went from 2,121 shelter and hostel beds in 1985 C.E. to just 52 by 2016 C.E., while supported housing units grew from 127 to 1,309 over the same period.
- Y-Foundation scale: The nonprofit at the center of the program now operates as Finland’s fourth-largest landlord, managing 18,000 apartments across 57 cities and municipalities.
How the model works
The logic inverts nearly everything most countries do. Instead of requiring people to demonstrate sobriety, employment, or mental health stability before receiving a home, Finland Housing First gives people housing unconditionally. Support services follow after, when a person has a stable address and what advocates describe as the psychological foundation to work on everything else.
Residents sign standard tenancy agreements. They pay rent. They have a legal address. Staff in supported housing treat people as tenants, not clients.
The contrast with the older approach is stark. Finland’s previous “staircase” model required people to climb through a series of rehabilitation steps before earning permanent housing. By 2008 C.E., that model had stalled — and the reason is visible in the trap it created. Without an address, people couldn’t apply for jobs. Without income, they couldn’t secure housing. The old system offered no mechanism to break that loop.
The numbers behind the change
The policy traces to 2007 C.E., when Finland’s Ministry of Environment convened what it called the Group of the Wise — a working group that included Helsinki’s head of social services, a member of parliament, the Bishop of Helsinki, and the managing director of the Y-Foundation. Their recommendation was a clean break from the staircase model.
Between 2008 and 2019 C.E., the Finnish government invested more than €270 million across three national programs — PAAVO I, PAAVO II, and AUNE — converting emergency shelters into permanent apartments and funding new construction. The Y-Foundation, which receives discounted state loans to acquire and renovate properties, drove much of that supply-building. Some acquisitions were funded partly through the Finnish national lottery.
By 2017 C.E., Finland had built enough capacity that every person experiencing homelessness in the country could sleep indoors. Long-term homelessness — cases lasting at least a year, often tied to mental health or substance use — fell 68% between 2008 and 2022 C.E. Research found that housing a formerly homeless person saves Finnish society approximately €15,000 per year in emergency healthcare, police response, and justice costs. About 80% of people who go through the program keep their housing long-term.
Why replication is harder than it looks
Finland’s record is remarkable. It is also built on infrastructure that most countries lack. The city of Helsinki owns 60,000 social housing units and 70% of its land, and operates its own construction company. That level of public ownership makes large-scale permanent housing achievable in ways that are structurally difficult where housing is almost entirely privately held.
Finland also measures homelessness more completely than most nations. Its statistics count people sleeping on couches, staying in institutions, living in hostels, and sleeping rough outside. Most countries use narrower definitions that exclude hidden homelessness — which means Finland’s figures were measuring something more real than comparable numbers elsewhere, even before the reduction began. Globally, an estimated 1.6 billion people live in inadequate shelter, according to Habitat for Humanity, underscoring how far the gap between Finland’s approach and the global norm remains.
For comparison: the United States counted more than 771,000 unhoused people in January 2025 C.E., about 0.2% of its population — and that count almost certainly understates the true number. Political continuity also mattered in Finland. Former Y-Foundation CEO Juha Kaakinen put it directly: “A strong political will has made the application of the Housing First approach possible. Governments, regardless of party composition, have stood behind the principle.”
Where Finland stands now
The 11-year streak of declining homelessness ended in early 2025 C.E. A right-leaning coalition government that took office in 2023 C.E. cut social security payments, income support, and housing subsidies. Y-Foundation CEO Teija Ojankoski noted that while Helsinki’s services housed an impressive number of people in 2024 C.E., “so many people end up homeless that services simply cannot keep up.”
Finland’s current official goal is to end long-term homelessness entirely by 2027 C.E. Y-Foundation leaders are cautiously optimistic, estimating complete eradication is realistic by the early 2030s — a significant “if,” given the current political climate. The recent uptick is a real warning: even the best-designed systems are vulnerable to sustained political commitment.
The story Finland tells the world isn’t that homelessness is easy to solve. It’s that it is solvable. And that the most effective solution requires treating housing as a foundation for human life, not as a reward for having everything else figured out first.
Read more
For more on this story, see: List of sovereign states by homeless population
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Alzheimer’s risk cut in half by drug in landmark prevention trial
- Indigenous land rights get a major boost ahead of COP30
- The Good News for Humankind archive on housing
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