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THERE ARE AS many as 100 million people homeless in the world. In Europe alone, there’s an estimated 4.1 million.
Despite these colossal numbers, there is no cohesive approach in tackling the issue. In developing countries, with a lack of services, funding, and housing, it’s extremely difficult to get a handle on it.
In other areas, thousands have been made homeless by war or natural disaster.
In Haiti, there are still up to 170,000 still homeless after the 2010 earthquake, living in “dire conditions”.
However, in some developed countries, authorities can control the situation, and while homelessness is still a long way off from being eradicated, some policies are working.
We took a look at some places abroad to see what the situation was there, and some ways they are tackling the issue:
FINLAND
Homelessness across Finland has fallen dramatically over the past three decades. Figures from the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) suggest that as many as 20,000 people were homeless in 2008, down to just 8,000 in 2012.
The government’s key strategy in this is a ‘Housing First’ approach. Instead of relying on hostels, dormitories, and shelters, they converted them into supported housing.
“In Helsinki, the last big shelter was closed in 2012 and it has been converted into a supported housing unit,” a FEANTSA report read.
Like Ireland, there is an aim to end homelessness - however, they have just four months left to meet their target.
While homelessness is is falling across the country, an estimate for 2012 points towards homelessness increasing due to rising numbers in the nation’s capital Helsinki.
In 2012, out of a population of 603,854, there were 1,100 people homeless in the city, over a quarter of which were under 25.
UTAH, UNITED STATES
The strategies implemented in Utah have proven to be extremely effective. A recent report detailing the success of the state’s Ten Year Plan placed the number of ‘chronically homeless persons’ at 1,932 in 2005. This has fallen 74%, and stood at 495 last year.
Some local shelters might even be able to close.
How did Utah manage that? Simple – by giving homes to people who were homeless.
Previously, receiving a home in this manner would have had several requirements, such as participation in rehabilitation programmes or job training, the Huffington Post reports. Under this new programme, these services are offered to those who are given an apartment, but if they don’t stick by it, the state backs off.
However, they must take good care of the property and not cause any hassle in their neighbourhood.
It has ultimately proved more cost-effective than leaving people out on the streets – $16,670 in hospital visits and spells in prison, compared to $11,000 for the apartment and a social worker, according to Nation of Change.
That isn’t to say the problem hasn’t completely dissipated. The number of homeless school children (those living in a some form of temporary accommodation, rather than sleeping rough), has risen slightly and stood at 12,383 last year, following a massive spike in 2009.
ATHENS, GREECE
Austerity budgets in Greece led to an “unprecedented” surge in the number of people homeless, the Guardian reports, a portion of which were the “new homeless” – middle-class people who were thrown into homelessness.
“The homeless service provider Klimaka reports that, in the past, most of its clients were single homeless people and a majority had addiction problems and/or mental health issues,” a FEANTSA report read.
Now, they face overwhelming demand from the “new” homeless, who are characterised by higher levels of qualifications and work experience and who do not present complex needs beyond not being able to meet housing costs.
The Spiegel reports that while Athens always had an issue with homelessness, there can now be as many as 25,000 people out on the streets.
That figure could be much higher. The Orthodox Church was feeding 250,000 people a day in 2012.
FEANTSA has also noted that Greece has a long way to go in terms of eliminating homelessness. A number of measures introduced in recent years can actually criminalise homelessness. The country has no integrated homelessness strategy, and while new local governance structures have been set up, they haven’t been fully implemented.
One measure introduced in 2011 did suspend evictions for a six-month period after someone was made redundant.
PARIS, FRANCE
France has a massive homeless population, numbering somewhere around 274,000, Reuters reported, with some 33,000 sleeping rough.
The official figure stood at 141,500 in 2011, up 50% from 2001, and half of which are foreign nationals.
However, the exact figure in Paris is unknown. According to The Economist, the last “meaningful estimate” was made in the mid-2000s, but there has been nothing since then. At the time, there was an estimated 12,000 people sleeping rough or in some kind of emergency accommodation, and are often extremely visible on the street.
Some estimates also suggest that less than 10% of families in Parisian shelters are French. The majority (57%) are of African origin. Another growing issue is the number of Roma living in squats.
Reuters added that squatting is become a significant trend in Paris, rising from 3,000 in 2002 to 20,000 last year. Squatters cannot be evicted in winter.
In 2010, the number of families requesting accommodation surpassed the number of single people, according to FEANTSA.
Authorities are attempting to get to grips with the issue of homelessness in the city. As much as €200 million has been released to address unfit housing.
Nationally, the social services are looking at how to target those most vulnerable - refugees, young people and people with mental health problems – and also but “humanising” shelters.
However, in terms of a housing-led approach, there are issues surrounding the supply of housing stock and adapted housing, and it is difficult to link those in temporary shelters into housing solutions.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Figures recorded between April and June this year estimated that there were 2,497 people sleeping rough in London, an increase of 23% from the same period the year previous.
Close to 1,300 of these people were sleeping rough for the first time.
Over the course of 2013, a total of 6,508 people were were seen rough sleeping by Broadway outreach workers, a small increase from the year previous.
When he was re-elected as London’s mayor in 2012, Boris Johnson pledged to engage in a new drive to end homelessness. All well and good, and something most political leaders would like to do, but he had already pledged when he was first elected to end homelessness by 2012.
An initiative called No Second Night Out was introduced, to ensure that no one spend more than one night sleeping rough.
However, VICE went on the streets to see first hand how the project was working out, and discovered that it could be creating more issues than it is fixing:
NSNO only offers to help rough sleepers the first time outreach workers meet them. If NSNO workers already know you to be homeless – if they know you’ve been sleeping rough for a couple of nights or, say, three years – they won’t help you again.
And let’s not forget the ‘homeless spikes’, an isolated issue but one that attracted international condemnation.
These metal pieces were installed outside a block of apartments in London, and were designed to stop homeless people sleeping outside. They were subsequently removed, presumably much to the delighted of Boris:
Pic: Andrew Bennett via Flickr/Creative Commons
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My mate’s a doctor in the south east. On more than one occasion he has dealt with men from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their multiple wives. One Afghani has been in 3 times in the past year with a different woman pregnant as his wife.
The third girl the guy claimed was 18 but my mate wasnt so sure. So he called the HSE, Gardai and other services and no one wanted to assist.
It’s happening here and is being brushed under the carpet. Polygamy is illegal in this country and our immigrant population need to be informed of this, and prosecuted to the fullest extent if they break the law.
Another example of muslim asylum seekers and migrants cultures trumping irish state law.
What are statistics of Pakistani/Afghan men acknowledging illegitimate children (unheard of in their culture) – then claiming right to stay!
Yes but we don’t want to appear racist – so let’s just leave it there.
Yes Good Early and do you know what else – Irish taxpayers are probably paying for the upkeep of him, his three wives and all his children! Wouldn’t it just give you the warm fuzzies!
I was thinking the same. They’re all in his medical card. I wonder if he can claim all of these wives as dependants with the Social.
I wanted to highlight it here as this sh*t is going on in Ireland. Not very PC to highlighted in this country while condemning it another
You can put your house on it that nobody will do anything about this medieval carry on , where are all the bleeding hearts who love an ‘issue ‘ to fill their empty days or even a feminist will do to ‘raise concerns ‘ about the treatment of women by these yokes , the only thing we are sure about is that what we see across the water has arrived here and in a generation we will have our own Rotherham
Good early…its like child abuse and destruction of whistleblowers….the powers that be dont like the boat being rocked…
Mike…RT today forced nordic state govt spokespersons to admit they are permitting child marriages exist/take place in reception centres for muslim/african asylum seekers…does/will that be embraced here amongst the “new irish”? Or is it already?
Let’s call this what it is- Paedophilia!
Good Early, You should tell your friend to go to a newspaper and give his story anonymously if needs be! It’s a disgrace and should be exposed.
Original….you and i agree…the multiculturalists among us would say its criminal and sick if you or i did it….but would say that for an african its cultural,thus acceptable.I look forward to the 1st such case exposed here.
All the bigots here on their high horses, the girl in the articles name is Maria. I wonder what religion she is from? And while this practice is despicable it is not limited to one ethnic group or religion. In Ireland not so long ago it was common practice to marry off teenage girls to old men (the quiet man is a a parody of this but it goes easy on the actual age difference).or else to put them on the emigrant boat. Such behaviour is commonly the result of extreme poverty and ignorance Anything for a rant a Johnny foreigner but just remember it i is only recent economic development with its attendant opportunties which have permitted your younger sister to avoid marrying 52 year Joe Mulvay with his 3 acres.
Her name is given as “Maria”, note inverted commas, so real name most likely isn’t.
Matty Matty Matty, I think you’ll find that “the traditional practice of ‘bog-lenga’ or ‘bonus woman’” is NOT a Christian practice – its one of their own African cultural practices. Also, it’s actually quite a considerably amount of time since teenage girls were married off to old men in Ireland. It’s like this Matty – you’re either against these practices or you’re not.
Matty..scroll down..note that i exculpated these folk already on the grounds of poverty and lack of education…and further noted that Colm o Gorman is attendant on the case….thus as a social justice campaigner i have already intervened.
Matty is a Gary Glitter fan! But he can’t bring the race card into the conversation if Garry the freak gets a good kicking
That’s just fooooooked up shit right there. Poor children don’t stand a chance in life
Just noticed colm o gorman is on the case….he knows education and lots of money will make burkina faso better…
Criminal.
Also can we have more reports on the jump in child marriage in Europe and what its causes are please?
Maybe an opinion piece from one of our college lecturers on how “culturally enriching” this kind of thing is?
Its their culture..we must celebrate it…though they would be tough neighbours to get to know.id love to eavesdrop on a cultural relativist workshop as they work out how to sell the benefits of these practices to a host nation…
As yes, more Islam enriching our world, third article today by my count… doesn’t it make you feel warm and fuzzy!
her name is Maria
No, her name is “Maria”. So her real name most likely isn’t.
Yes, and taking more than one wife is forbidden in Christianity.
So which do you think is more plausible? That the man having five wives is a spoof, or that they named to girl Maria and never mentioned Islam so people like you wouldn’t have to get that sickly feeling in your belly between the truth and not wanting to appear racist haha!
Ps I think it’s a set up to spare your feelings ;)
Plenty of Christian organisations practicing polygamy in the US and elsewhere.
Plenty, really? Name 5 if you could.
It doesn’t really matter if you can name them or not, not one recognized Christian Church practices polygamy, not one Catholic, Protestant, Assyrian, Coptic, Orthodox or otherwise; in conjunction polygamy is not legal in “christian” countries either.
So to compare that to Islam, where polygamy is scripturally permissible, accepted by each of the four Islamic schools of jurisprudence and is legal under CIVIL law in many Islamic countries, is a comparison so weak as to really make me doubt your knowledge on the subject.
Sad I suppose…but what the hell has it to do with us?
It’s Africa’s problem.
One more in a long list.
You are all Hart cal.
Also a uk , Swedish problem . Etc . Actually now it’s a European prob
Cal, You’re right – it is “Africa’s problem” and it is “one more in a long list” but it is still actually very sad and twisted – and it shouldn’t happen anywhere in the world!
I would have chosen a different organ to describe Cal.
Cal has no idea of history
Cerebral?
The Muslims have made it clear they will take over Europe because they can have as many wife’s and children as they want that is why I would be very slow in giving anyone of them citizenship .
Let the savages do what they want in their own countries but don’t be bringing it here. King George was right; abroad is bloody
That’s what Jesus would have said Cal
Pedos?
Which god do they worship again? The pedophile one?
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