Homelessness in Denmark Lars Benjaminsen 19-06-2014 1
Rising trend in homelessness Number of homeless people, national counts Homelessness situation Week 6, 2009 Week 6, 2011 Week 6, 2013 Street 506 426 595 Emergency night shelter 355 283 349 Homeless shelter 1.952 1.874 2.015 Hotel 88 68 70 Family/friends 1.086 1.433 1.653 Short term transitional Institutional release, prison Institutional release, hospital 164 227 211 86 88 64 172 173 119 Other 589 718 744 Total 4.998 5.290 5.820 19-06-2014 2
The increase has taken place in the cities Homeless people in cities 2009 2013 Per cent change Copenhagen area 2428 3100 28 Århus 466 617 32 Rest of Denmark 2104 2103 0 Total 4998 5820 16 The increasing shortage of affordable housing in the cities is a main reason for the increase 19-06-2014 3
Increase in youth homelessness Year 2009 2011 2013 Number of young homeless people 18-24 years Percent mentally ill amongst young homeless people 633 1.002 1.138 35 43 51 19-06-2014 4
Increase in number of mentally ill amongst the homeless Year 2009 2011 2013 Per cent mentally ill 37 44 47 Per cent mentally ill substance users 25 29 31 19-06-2014 5
Sociale interventions 2009 2011 2013 Social support person 27 28 28 Waiting list for own housing 25 25 27 Waiting list for supported housing 6 5 5 Social action plan 17 21 22 19-06-2014 6
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 18-24 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 19-06-2014 7
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 19-06-2014 8
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 19-06-2014 9
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 19-06-2014 10
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 19-06-2014 11
Housing outcomes of floating support interventions (national homelessness strategy) Housing retention rates ACT (Kbh) ICM CTI Has been housed and remained housed 94 76 95 Has lost housing 7 8 3 - lost housing but has been rehoused - 4 (1) - lost housing and has not been rehoused (7) 4 (3) Has not been housed throughout period 0 16 2 Total per cent 100 100 100 Total N (62) (717) (316) 19-06-2014 12
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 19-06-2014 13
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 ) 19-06-2014 14