Housing First and the Reduction of Homelessness in Finland Among Substance Abusers

Finland's response to homelessness is based on Housing First, a comprehensive approach that combines unconditional access to housing, tailored support and homelessness prevention. This system has been recognized as a success both nationally and internationally. The effectiveness of different Housing First models have been largely studied and discussed internationally. The Finnish studies and evaluation reports have relied on mixed-methods data, but the use of national level register data has been quite narrow. In this paper, we discuss the effectiveness of the Housing First model in reducing the homelessness and improving lives of one of the most marginalized subgroups of residents: substance abusers. We analyse the relationships between the implementation of housing first for this subgroup in different areas in Finland and the changes in the regional homelessness rates of the group as well as their later life outcomes. The regional differences are used to achieve more causal estimates of the programs effectiveness. We compare our results with previous literature. We identify the homeless substance abusers from national registers based on their visits to substance abuser care centers. We are able to follow the identified people in the following years spanning over a decade and identify their later housing outcomes and socioeconomic standing. These results offer reliable register-based insights into the program's impact and lay the groundwork for more systematic studies of its various phases and components. Given that homelessness is a persistent global issue, our study offers valuable insights from a context where at least partial solutions have been achieved.