As a cold wave has hit the country since Monday January 8, the issue of homelessness is once again at the heart of concerns. More than 330,000 people are poorly housed in France – homeless, homeless or housed in unsanitary housing – according to the latest estimates from the Abbé Pierre Foundation from January 2023. If France struggles to reduce this number, it could well become take inspiration from Finland, which stands out in this area.
The Nordic country has in fact managed to divide the number of its homeless by three since the 1980s. And between 2008 and 2015, it reduced the number of its long-term homeless by 35%. In 2017, Finland still had 7,100 homeless people (SDF). Or three times less than France in 2016 – it then had 27,000 – in proportion to its population. For the record, there were 5.5 million Finns in 2017, while there were 67 million French people.
So how did Finland achieve this result? Thanks to a “global cooperation strategy” called “Housing First”, “Logement d’abord” in French, in the terms of the Ministry of the Environment in charge of the subject. The goal: to provide people in need with housing as quickly as possible. Then allowing reintegration into society and the professional environment.
“Finland is a pioneer in Europe since it was one of the first countries to integrate “Housing First””, analyzes Julien Lévy, sociologist and political scientist, co-author of a study entitled “Housing First Seen by its recipients”, published in 2022. But the Nordic country did not invent this model. It is inspired by “Pathways to Housing”, a model that appeared in 1892 in New York. It consists of finding lasting housing for chronically homeless people, that is to say who alternate between emergency accommodation centers and the street, who are also victims of mental health disorders.
After several years of experimentation, the authorities realized that “providing emergency accommodation on an ad hoc basis to people suffering from mental disorders or addictions did not allow them to escape homelessness”, decrypts Julien Lévy. While “Housing First” showed “positive” results. In fact, “80% of people housed were still there three or four years later. The beneficiaries thus considered themselves to have an improved quality of life.
This model aims to reverse the logic of access to housing, considered here as “a fundamental right”, explains the researcher. By providing housing and personalized support, the person can look for a job and integrate into society. Housing can be located “in the same building” or dispersed throughout a municipality, but “mainly in large cities to promote integration,” describes Julien Lévy. Those housed can stay there “as long as they wish”. This is also one of the major principles of the system.
Faced with this conclusive American experiment, Finland began to deploy the model in 2007. And focusing on the fight against homelessness has proven to be financially profitable, the government boasts on its site. Because sheltering people allows us to “reduce the costs of health care and social protection”, we can read.
Peter Fredriksson, former Finnish Minister of the Environment, has become the “homeless man”. “We studied the profile of the homeless and we discovered, for example, that their average consumption of hospital services was six times higher than the average,” he explains to Franceinfo. Then we calculated the budget for the project, from pick-up on the street to installation in a residence. We realized that “Housing First” saved us 15,000 euros per year per person. So it’s a very smart investment.”
For Julien Lévy, this argument of profitability is “often put forward by the promoters of the model”. “But overall, it is always complicated to know the precise cost of a homeless or homeless person given the variety of elements to take into consideration: costs linked to accommodation in structures, health treatments and medication, hospitalizations in emergency rooms or others, incarceration…”, lists the sociologist. According to “various international studies (…) there is not a huge difference in terms of costs,” he reports. These studies concern chronically homeless people who “alternate between emergency accommodation centers and the street, or other places not intended for housing,” specifies the researcher.
France adopted “Housing First” from 2010. “At that time, a lot of thinking was being done at ministerial level on how to transform access to housing and how to remedy the back and forth between street and emergency accommodation centers,” contextualizes Julien Lévy. After a conclusive experiment, the model was developed in several cities across the country – such as Lille, Lyon, Grenoble and Marseille – and still exists. It is financed by health insurance and program 177 “Accommodation, pathways to housing and integration of vulnerable people” set up by the State.
But unlike Finland, France is struggling to reduce the number of its poorly housed people. Their number, recorded by the Abbé Pierre Foundation, has increased by almost 130% since 2012, the year of the last INSEE study on the subject. But not everyone lives on the street. Among the more than 330,000 recorded in 2023, we find 200,000 people in emergency accommodation, 110,000 migrants in reception centers or accommodation for asylum seekers, plus around 27,000 homeless people, sleeping on the street, the metro , in a tent or in a car.
How can we explain that France has not succeeded in reducing the number of its poorly housed people like Finland? “The model of the Nordic country is very particular,” declares Julien Lévy. Even before launching “Housing First”, Finland had already started to reduce the number of homeless people.” The latter are also, in proportion to the population, much less numerous than in France since the 1980s. “It is therefore not comparable”, estimates the sociologist.
The factor of the country’s migration policy also comes into account, adds the researcher. Indeed, France has a more flexible policy than its Nordic neighbor in this area.
The report “Homeless migrant camps: European comparisons and recommendations”, produced by Julien Damon in 2019 for Fondapol, raises this question. The study explains that it is easier for a homeless migrant to benefit from emergency accommodation in France than in Finland, where “undocumented immigrants cannot claim emergency accommodation (… ) financed by public authorities. The number of migrants is also significantly different between the two countries. When Finland welcomed 24,000 migrants in 2019, France issued 287,503 residence permits.
But, with regard to long-term accommodation, “the logic of support is not the same” as that of emergency accommodation, explains Julien Lévy. Indeed, only people “in a regular situation” can claim “Housing First” in France and Finland.
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For the sociologist, the results in France, as abroad, remain “positive” because “the people concerned generally believe that the model has been beneficial to them”. The researcher also welcomes the development, in France, of structures for specific populations such as women victims of domestic violence, people threatened with rental evictions… France is, however, confronted, like other countries, with “nerve of the war”: finding accommodation, mainly from the “private rental stock”.
In the meantime, the Minister for Housing, Patrice Vergriete, announced Monday January 8 that additional credits of 120 million euros will be committed to “strengthen the emergency accommodation system”. This new envelope corresponds to 10,000 additional places, provided for in a plan announced in June 2023.
