Homelessness in Denmark

Transcription

1 Homelessness in Denmark Lars Benjaminsen

2 Rising trend in homelessness Number of homeless people, national counts Homelessness situation Week 6, 2009 Week 6, 2011 Week 6, 2013 Street Emergency night shelter Homeless shelter Hotel Family/friends Short term transitional Institutional release, prison Institutional release, hospital Other Total

3 The increase has taken place in the cities Homeless people in cities Per cent change Copenhagen area Århus Rest of Denmark Total The increasing shortage of affordable housing in the cities is a main reason for the increase

4 Increase in youth homelessness Year Number of young homeless people years Percent mentally ill amongst young homeless people

5 Increase in number of mentally ill amongst the homeless Year Per cent mentally ill Per cent mentally ill substance users

6 Sociale interventions Social support person Waiting list for own housing Waiting list for supported housing Social action plan

7 Reasons Massive lack of affordable housing in Copenhagen and Aarhus - Renovations in public housing financed by rent increases - flexible letting requirement of employment for new letting of vacancies in some estates year olds: General increase in number of young people on cash benefits and who has a lower level of benefits that those over 25 Capacity problems in floating support Split of psychiatry, substance abuse treatment and homelessness services Lack of supported accommodation for mentally ill substance users

8 National homelessness strategy Four main goals 1) Reduce rough sleeping 2) Provide alternatives to shelters for homeless young people 3) Reduce time spent in shelters 4) Reducing homelessness due to institutional release 500m DKK (65m ) over 4 years

9 Components of the programme Strengthening floating support in housing with evidence-based methods Providing more housing and supported accommodation Strenghtening street outreach work Better procedures for institutional release from prisons and hospitals Risk and needs assessments Other activities TITEL

10 Floating support programme Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Multidisiplinary support team social support workers, nurse, psychiatrist, addiction treatment specialist, social office worker, job office worker Intensive Case Management (ICM) Case manager social and practical support and coordination of use of other services Critical Time Intervention (CTI) Time-limited case management (9 months) social and practical support and coordination of use of other services TITEL

11 Good results of interventions Housing First works for most homeless people 9 out of 10 can become housed and maintain their housing Independent scattered housing is better for most Problems with category housing/institutionlike accommodation often involve conflicts amongst residents, noise, and an environnement marked by addiction problems making recovery difficult

12 Housing outcomes of floating support interventions (national homelessness strategy) Housing retention rates ACT (Kbh) ICM CTI Has been housed and remained housed Has lost housing lost housing but has been rehoused - 4 (1) - lost housing and has not been rehoused (7) 4 (3) Has not been housed throughout period Total per cent Total N (62) (717) (316)

13 The new programme 1) Implementation and anchoring project old and new municipalities: -floating support programme -training of social workers -organisation of cooperation within the municipality and other local actors -much less funding available from central government (about 2m for training, monitoring, etc.) - municipalities have to provide funding for the interventions themselves

14 The new programme 2) Youth programme -developing new interventions probably primarily case management based support - specially adapted to young homeless people -organisation and cooperation within the municipality and other local actors. -more funding about 50m DKK (7m )