At the crossroads of the Paavo- programmes

Challenges for Paavo III

Perspectives on Housing First in Finland 17.9.2014

Riitta Granfelt

“Long-term Homelessness and Finnish Adaptations of Housing First Model”

Academy of Finland

Themes of the presentation

• Gender perspective• Young adults living at housing units• Tacit knowledge • Diversity of Housing First –adaptations• Back to Basics

Paavos lacking gender perspective?

• Time to highligt the need for housing services and related social and health care services for women at the margins of society

• `Women-specific´ as part of housing social work?

• Connecting basic and special levels of expertise in the mental health and substance abuse services to respond to trauma experiences

Young adults at the Housing units

• Social integration as a goal of housing social work at housing units

• Transitions for the most marginalised young adults to scattered housing

• Development of floating support that works from the point of mentally fragile drug abusers

Tacit knowledge as a resource

• Unique professional skills, understanding and know-how about housing social work for the use of practice research and professional training

• Vague and unclear professional identity of the housing advisors, housing councellors, housing social workers; connections with social work education and research at the university level

Diversity of HF -adaptations/mixed models

• F.eg. Housing First or Desistance First?• Preventive housing social work at institutional

settings, like prisons, mental hospitals, drug rehabilitation institutions… > paths to `housing readiness´ for scattered housing

• Not staircase -models, but path- (or mixed) models: transitions and recovery processes; f.eg. from congregate housing to scattered housing

Basics of Homelessness work

• Ontological security• Getting rid of stigmatisation ”Otherness”• Meaning of Life• Recovery as part of Everyday Life ”life-long

process”• One´s own flat as ”holding/facilitating

environment”, if not experienced as home