FINLAND

HOMELESS ACADEMY ASSOCIATION

Homeless Academy Association was established in 2006 as part of the Helsinki Deaconess Institute’s football project in association with Suojatiery (Crossing Society). They are supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and the Finnish Football Association.

They are based in Helsinki and organise competitions, coaching, educational and recreational activities for different groups, and coordinate activities with other social agencies.

ORGANISATION DETAILS

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PARTICIPANTS

Men and women affected by substance abuse, homelessness and social isolation.

LOCATIONS

Across Finland

Country statistics

11 out of 189 in Human Development Index rating
(UNDP, 2019)

Average annual salary per person $49,780 (World Bank, 2021)

54% Of families who are homeless are immigrants (FEANTSA, 2017)

Finland has a population of 5.5 million, with the vast majority, 85.6%, living in urban areas. The population of the capital city, Helsinki, is 1.3 million. Finland transformed from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy, with a per capita income among the highest in Europe.

In addition to a modern industrial economy, Finland also has a modern welfare state, which includes high quality education, promotion of equality and a national social welfare system.

As the only Nordic state to join the Euro, Finland has an unemployment rate of 6.63% (as of 2019) and a youth unemployment rate, ages 15-24, of 21.4% (CIA Factbook, 2020).

Finland has continuously decreased the number of homeless individuals over the last 30 years, from over 16,000 in 1989 to around 4000. In 2020, practically nobody was sleeping rough on any given night in Finland. Adopting a ‘housing first’ strategy, Finland provides people experiencing homelessness with immediate, independent, permanent housing (Ecoscope, 2021).

In 2020, Finland reported 1275 registered asylum seekers, most of them coming from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Russia (UNHCR, 2021). 54% Of homeless families are immigrants (FEANTSA, 2017).

In the late 1980s there were nearly 20,000 homeless people in Finland. In 2017 there were 7,112, with 1,893 long-term homeless, marking a decrease of 64% over 30 years (FEANTSA, 2017; ARA, 2017).

Finland is on track to achieve near eradication of recurrent and long-term homelessness, and approaching a time when experiencing any form of homelessness will be uncommon (EOH, 2017).