New strategy for tackling homelessness trialling in UK

Understanding homelessness

Global rates of homelessness have been on the rise since the 2008 financial crash. In Britain, the number of rough sleepers has risen 165 percent over the last decade.

Though Housing First focuses on providing people with a roof over their heads without the need to tick boxes first, Dr Tsemberis says that obtaining housing is just the first step towards improving their lives.

Once offered a safe home base, individuals can then think about cooking and eating regular meals, as well as showering daily. With this added layer of security and routine, it becomes far easier to think about applying for jobs, attending interviews, and eventually, showing up every day.

Safe housing also improves the likelihood of people getting sober. For many living on the streets, drug and alcohol use stems from the need to stay warm in harsh winter conditions or to stay awake for long hours, especially during the night, when vulnerability increases.

Regular substance abuse can also be a way to alleviate the stresses of living on the street, creating a numbing experience to negative emotional effects and traumas. Access to a safer environment almost always creates a ripple effect that allows other areas of people’s lives to flourish.

Adopting the Helsinki model

Of course, the key obstacle to implementing the Housing First program is finding available housing.

But one of the biggest misconceptions about tackling homelessness is that housing costs more than allowing people to sleep in the street. In reality, rough sleepers cost the public purse £20,128 per year due to interventions from the police, hospitals, and prisons.

Housing people, by sharp contrast, costs governments just £1,426 annually. In this scenario, local authorities would do well to draw upon the success occurring in Helsinki.

With help from both public and private grants, the Finnish government has been working with the local Y-Foundation to purchase properties solely to house the homeless.

Thanks to this action, the Y-Project has become Finland’s fourth-largest landlord. It currently collects rent from 26,000 formerly homeless tenants in over 18,000 properties. Any surplus funding received is reinvested into the Y-Project, allowing it to run as a profitable business.

Greater Manchester is currently undertaking a similar model to Helsinki. This summer, the northern English city received £6.3 million in government funding to support its Housing First initiative.  Birmingham and Liverpool have also launched their own trials of the model.

As always, this model may not be successful in every city. Every area is unique, with its own sets of issues that need tackling. However, with such fantastic results occurring in Europe and America, let’s hope the trial in the UK does well enough to become a nationwide effort.