Homelessness

According to a housing market survey made by the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, in November 2008 there where approximately 8,000 homeless individuals and 300 homeless families in the country. Homelessness is most concentrated in growing urban centres, and particularly in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

In twenty years the number of homeless people has declined considerably. In the late eighties there were some 19;000 homeless persons in the country. However, in the last few years the decline has been quite slow. It has been estimated that almoust half of the homeless people are long-term homeless.

A programme to reduce long-term homelessness is to be drawn up under Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's second cabinet's Programme for the period 2008 - 2011.

Finnish Goverment's Programme to reduce long-term homelessness, pdf 37 kb