The issue of access to housing and homelessness has been in the news for several months. With the latest count of people experiencing homelessness, which shows an increase in several regions of Quebec, the Homelessness Summit scheduled for Friday risks being eagerly awaited.
To resolve the problem of access to housing, the federal Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, proposed, sparking strong reactions, to limit the reception of foreign students. On the issue of homelessness, several action plans, investments, initiatives and above all field teams working hard to minimize situations of increased vulnerability experienced on a daily basis by people experiencing homelessness . The triumphant Finnish model shows us that the two issues are strongly linked.
The Finnish model
Finland has adopted a “Housing First” policy (Housing First), in which social services first provide rental housing to homeless people and then treat mental health and substance abuse issues. Since its launch in 2008, the number of homeless people in Finland has decreased by around 30% and the number of long-term homeless people has fallen by more than 35%.
The Finnish model shows that people experiencing homelessness were better able to manage their addictions and their search for employment when they had housing. Thus, more than ten years after the launch of the “Housing First” policy, 80% of people who had been homeless were still living in the accommodation that had been provided to them, now paying their rent themselves.
One of the main successes of these government initiatives has been the conversion of existing shelters into permanent housing. The programs were developed and implemented through broad partnerships between the Finnish state, municipalities and local NGOs. Nowhere has the success been greater than in the city of Helsinki.
It should be noted that projects such as “Housing First” exist in France, the United Kingdom and Canada in various forms. Nevertheless, the program in Finland has been elevated to the rank of principle structuring the political vision of homelessness prevention, while in the other countries the initiatives are still at the stage of small pilot projects intended to gradually extend their model.
Facing the private sector in Montreal
We will have to face the facts. Experiences outside Finland so far clearly show that no one can benefit from a Housing First approach when available housing is scarce. The lack of affordable social housing appears to be the main obstacle to its introduction or expansion in many countries.
Thus, it is here, by observing the relationship between Montreal and the private rental sector, that we see the limits of the Quebec metropolis: the municipality of Helsinki owns 70% of the city’s land, including more than 60,000 social housing units. . It has a housing policy that increases this housing by around 6,000 units per year, and 25% of this is social housing while the rest is a mix of purchased housing and private rental sector housing.
To say that Montreal is not yet at this stage is an understatement. As noted by the Observatory of Greater Montreal (2023), based on data from the Rental Housing Survey which mainly analyzes the private sector, 60.4% of households in the Montreal agglomeration live in housing. private rental.
With the Finnish model in mind, will this data, which is essential for reducing the vulnerability experienced by people experiencing homelessness, be discussed at the Homelessness Summit?