You can no longer get so low that we will not be beside you.
December 24, 2023 1:00 PM Subscribe
How Finland is solving homelessness. An incredible video to me, about Finland's housing and accompanying support solutions for homeless people. Showing so many benefits to everyone involved (as well as 'saving the tax payer money') by providing housing for everyone, however low they get.
Treating everyone as people first, and that housing should be a right, not a priviledge.
Recognising you can't help other challenges as effectively without first having a place you can rely on being your home.
Even their temporary emergency accomodation is your own room with a door and lock, etc. potentially for months, whilst they find you your own apartment. And their accomodation blocks provide so many other activities too.
I really hope the rest of the world follows this example and demonstratable proof that if you listen to the people directly involved, and care for long term outcomes, it can work.
Treating everyone as people first, and that housing should be a right, not a priviledge.
Recognising you can't help other challenges as effectively without first having a place you can rely on being your home.
Even their temporary emergency accomodation is your own room with a door and lock, etc. potentially for months, whilst they find you your own apartment. And their accomodation blocks provide so many other activities too.
I really hope the rest of the world follows this example and demonstratable proof that if you listen to the people directly involved, and care for long term outcomes, it can work.
Left to its own devices [like what we're seeing in the UK. Canadian, Australian markets right now], real estate turns into a Monopoly board real quick.
Homeless people are like 'f--- it, I'll walk on the lines.'
posted by torokunai at 2:00 PM on December 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Homeless people are like 'f--- it, I'll walk on the lines.'
posted by torokunai at 2:00 PM on December 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
There are circumstances, not even extreme circumstances, that leave Americans homeless. They can be in a position where they lose their car, job, or house, and even if they pay their taxes all of their life, their registered income will prevent them from any financial assistance. I am glad someone is figuring it out, and I do hope other countries follow Finland's lead.
posted by ukfacts at 2:00 PM on December 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by ukfacts at 2:00 PM on December 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
Finland, Finland Finland.
Pony trekking, or camping
or just watching TV.
I have been playing a video wargame with a Finnish guy for a few years now. Seems like a better county than the USA. But so many "j"s... How do you pronounce all those "j"s?
And glad Michael Palin is still with us.
posted by Windopaene at 3:40 PM on December 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Pony trekking, or camping
or just watching TV.
I have been playing a video wargame with a Finnish guy for a few years now. Seems like a better county than the USA. But so many "j"s... How do you pronounce all those "j"s?
And glad Michael Palin is still with us.
posted by Windopaene at 3:40 PM on December 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
THAT is something that makes me smile today.
I needed one.
People don't need much. It can be 10x10 and a roof to keep the rain off. A bed. A toilet. A small cooker and a locking door.
Some people don't even want much, but everybody deserves a safe space and a place to sleep.
USA, you suck.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:33 PM on December 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
I needed one.
People don't need much. It can be 10x10 and a roof to keep the rain off. A bed. A toilet. A small cooker and a locking door.
Some people don't even want much, but everybody deserves a safe space and a place to sleep.
USA, you suck.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:33 PM on December 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
$15,000 less public expenditure per year per homeless person would appear to be a compelling value proposition even to the most cold-hearted taxation minimalist, but you'd need essentially competent governments at national, state and local levels to make it work. Finland has those. The US, by and large, does not.
To make Housing First work requires democracy first. Privatized autocracy needs to be dismantled in order to stop it from corrupting, leeching, undermining and white-anting social programs of all kinds, and that requires that its power centres - corporate boardrooms and C suites - have that power reined in by force of organized labour.
The self-serving rentiers who drive almost all of US public policy fully understand this. But "my way or the highway" is simply not a sustainable basis on which to run a corner store, let alone a nation, and it's about time people stopped accepting the abuses routinely meted out by employers as if doing that was a boss's god-given right.
posted by flabdablet at 9:07 PM on December 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
To make Housing First work requires democracy first. Privatized autocracy needs to be dismantled in order to stop it from corrupting, leeching, undermining and white-anting social programs of all kinds, and that requires that its power centres - corporate boardrooms and C suites - have that power reined in by force of organized labour.
The self-serving rentiers who drive almost all of US public policy fully understand this. But "my way or the highway" is simply not a sustainable basis on which to run a corner store, let alone a nation, and it's about time people stopped accepting the abuses routinely meted out by employers as if doing that was a boss's god-given right.
posted by flabdablet at 9:07 PM on December 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
Dumb rigid hierarchies require abuse to maintain the illusion of control.
The idea that we are a corrupted democracy, incapable of course correcting - is a self reinforcing belief, aka a hyperstition. Things have gotten out of balance, but course correction is possible. The recognition of our own roles in constructing our social reality is a good start.
posted by grokus at 11:38 PM on December 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
The idea that we are a corrupted democracy, incapable of course correcting - is a self reinforcing belief, aka a hyperstition. Things have gotten out of balance, but course correction is possible. The recognition of our own roles in constructing our social reality is a good start.
posted by grokus at 11:38 PM on December 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
Meanwhile, here in Britain, there are 121,327 children living in temporary accommodation, and 261,189 empty properties. Merry F**king Christmas, Prime Minister.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 1:16 AM on December 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Cardinal Fang at 1:16 AM on December 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
When I lived in a student share flat in Helsinki, among my flatmates were a refugee couple from Ivory Coast. 10x10 with a shared kitchen and bathroom was about right. It was tight for two people — I think they were on a waiting list for couples housing — but so much more humane than what we do here.
posted by eirias at 3:51 AM on December 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by eirias at 3:51 AM on December 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Thank you for sharing! :)
posted by Mr. Papagiorgio at 12:24 PM on December 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Papagiorgio at 12:24 PM on December 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
"People that need help should get the help they need" should be a controversial role of government.
That phrase is something I hit on while explaining why some people are homeless. We were on a trip and he hadn't seen a homeless person before and asked me about it. I had only explained to him a little bit and his first instinct was to ask me to buy the homeless person we saw a donut. I had promised him a donut because there was a shop next to our hotel and they were cheap AF. I got the homeless person a bunch of donuts and a couple of other things. I had no cash or I'd have given him some cash too. A 2nd homeless person had shown up while I was inside and he was immediately offered half.
I'm really proud of my kid (he's five) but the whole thing just seemed so natural and human on all sides. I get mad thinking about the people that prevent our governments from doing that same thing at government scale.
posted by VTX at 6:16 PM on December 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
That phrase is something I hit on while explaining why some people are homeless. We were on a trip and he hadn't seen a homeless person before and asked me about it. I had only explained to him a little bit and his first instinct was to ask me to buy the homeless person we saw a donut. I had promised him a donut because there was a shop next to our hotel and they were cheap AF. I got the homeless person a bunch of donuts and a couple of other things. I had no cash or I'd have given him some cash too. A 2nd homeless person had shown up while I was inside and he was immediately offered half.
I'm really proud of my kid (he's five) but the whole thing just seemed so natural and human on all sides. I get mad thinking about the people that prevent our governments from doing that same thing at government scale.
posted by VTX at 6:16 PM on December 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
In the US, it's not as much a matter of competence as puritanical thought patterns and obliviousness to compassion being a central life skill.
posted by interbeing at 1:47 PM on December 26, 2023
posted by interbeing at 1:47 PM on December 26, 2023
I count both of those as forms of very deep incompetence. Learned incompetence perhaps, cultural incompetence arguably, but incompetence all the same.
posted by flabdablet at 2:28 AM on December 28, 2023
posted by flabdablet at 2:28 AM on December 28, 2023
> How do you pronounce all those "j"s?
Like an English "y" (if that was a straight question).
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:16 PM on December 29, 2023
Like an English "y" (if that was a straight question).
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:16 PM on December 29, 2023
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