What Japan and Finland can teach Australia about homelessness

via Ib Aage Toft-Iversen (i47i) (@i47i@social.i47i.cc): Following up on Denver: Finland is the classic proof that homelessness can be solved.

A University of Melbourne commentary contrasts Japan’s approach of simply building a lot of housing quickly with Finland’s Housing First policy, which grants permanent housing without preconditions like sobriety or employment. Finland’s rough-sleeping numbers have dropped dramatically since 2008, and Japan’s official street count fell from 25,000 in 2003 to under 2,500 today — though the piece is careful to note the two countries measure very different things. A useful reminder that homelessness is largely a housing supply and policy problem, not an intractable one.

What Japan and Finland can teach Australia about homelessness