
As homelessness rises across Europe, Finland’s numbers are falling - DoreenMichele
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/homelessness-finland-housing-first_us_5c503844e4b0f43e410ad8b6
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nikonyrh
"As homelessness rises across Europe, Finland’s numbers are falling."

But at what cost? I'd like to quote a budget but the article doesn't tell us.

"While it’s expensive to build, buy and rent housing for homeless people, as
well as provide the vital support services, the architects of the policy say
it pays for itself. Studies have found housing one long-term homeless person
saves society around €15,000 ($17,000) a year, said Kaakinen, due to a
reduction in their use of services such as hospital emergency rooms, police
and the criminal justice system."

Market-rate rent is at least 600 eur per month in Helsinki, or 7200 eur per
year (well depending on the unit's size). Adding this to the 15k saved means
that each homeless person is causing 22k euros worth of costs every year.
Multiplying by 7k homeless brings their cost to 154 million euros per year.
And this figure doesn't even cover those who get their apartment from these
programs, thus making them not homeless.

