Social Services for Homeless People and the Possibility of a National System of Data Collection A research on measuring homelessness in municipalities

Social Services for Homeless People and the Possibility of a National System of Data

Collection

A research on measuring homelessness in municipalities and in units that encounter

homeless people

Sari Pitkänen & Juha Kaakinen 27.02.2009

Social Development Co

The study contains

1) A questionnaire to the cities with largest amount of homeless (22 cities)

The questionnaire provided information on • the way that homelessness and long-term

homelessness are calculated in the cities • organisations that provide housing and housing

services and which are included in the census of homelessness in these cities

• measures to reduce long-term homelessness in cities that are not included in the reduction programme

2) A questionnaire to organisations that provide accomodation or housing service

The questionnaire provided information on • housing level and staff working in these organisations • the method that organisations use when collecting

information about their clients and the method which they recommend should be used , if a study about homelessness would be made

• the amount of homeless, long-term homeless, individuals under risk of getting homeless or living long-term in these organisations; descriptions of typical homeless persons in the organisation

• recommendations how to reduce long-term homelessness


• Usually the calculation inmunicipalities is made in co-operation with social services and housing authorities and also with non-profit organisations, and in some municipalities mainly in social services.

• In calculation of homelessness there is in use various kinds of registers such as client register of social services, application register for rental apartments, register of outsourcing service and client registers of non-profit organisations; also a local questionnaire is in use.

• There are various practices how people are classified as homeless while staying in temporary accomodation or in institutions. Also the variety of organisations which are taken into account in calculation of homelessness explains the differences in statistics of amount of homelessness in temporary accomodation and in institutions.

Models how homelessness is calculated in the cities Social Development

Co

• Even though Finnish cities use different kinds of models in calculating the amount of homeless, their methods seem to be advanced and produce consistent results With few exceptions estimations of amount of long-term homelessness have been parallel which affirms the methods to be valid in the calculation of homelessness

• Models used in calculation of homelessness are not in need of change and there is no need to make them identical, because they are planned to fit into local conditions.

• However, the results show that there is in use different kinds of definions regarding who are calculated as homeless persons in organisations. There is a need to specify who are calculated as homeless persons in temporary accomodation and institutions.


Sector of organisation

Answers %

Non-profit organisation (association, foundation, parish) 148 56

Private entrepreneur 47 18

Municipality or federation of municipalities 52 20

State 15 6

Total 262 100

• Questionnaire was sent to 661 organisations, 272 responses; response rate was moderate 41 %.

• 77 % of organisations (210) were units that provide accomodation, housing or institutional care


Responses to questionnaire

Answers %

Espoo 22 8

Forssa 3 1

Helsinki 57 21

Hyvinkää 8 3

Hämeenlinna 6 2

Joensuu 14 5

Jyväskylä 11 4

Järvenpää 3 1

Kotka 5 2

Kuopio 14 5

Lahti 10 4

Lappeenranta 5 2

Mikkeli 6 2

Oulu 11 4

Porvoo 7 3

Raisio 0 0

Riihimäki 3 1

Savonlinna 4 1

Tampere 34 13

Turku 18 7

Vaasa 9 3

Vantaa 12 4

Other 10 4

Total 272 100



Homelessness in organisations %

64

57

37

30

32

36

51

55

4

7

13

15

0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 %

Homeless persons

Long-term homeless persons

Persons staying long-term inorganisation

Persons under risk ofhomelessness

Yes No Not in knowledge

No homeless

people

Less than 1/3

Over 1/3 All Total % Answers

Hostel 100 0 0 0 100 2

Youth hostel- - - - 0

Shelter 17 17 33 33 100 6

Residential home 0 0 13 88 100 8

Non-institutional care for substance abusers

27 64 9 0 100 11

Assisted housing unit forsubstance abusers

3 14 47 36 100 36

Day centre 0 43 57 0 100 7

Institutional care for substance abusers

5 38 48 10 100 21

Assisted housing unit forpersons with mental disorders

74 17 9 0 100 23

Institutional care for persons with mental disorders

63 13 13 13 100 8

Assisted housing unit for persons with mental disorders and substance abuse

8 15 23 54 100 13

Jail 0 50 50 0 100 12

Hospital 17 50 33 0 100 6

Social and health advice centres - - - - 0

Assisted housing 36 21 7 36 100 14

Service housing 67 0 33 0 100 3

Institutional care for child wellfare

100 0 0 0 100 2

Other 50 0 0 50 100 2

Homeless clients in organisations Social Development Co

Organisation has

homeless clients

Organisation has not

homeless clients

No knowledge

about clients homelessnes

s

Total %

Answers

Hostel 0 100 0 100 2

Youth hostel 50 50 0 100 2

Shelter 71 29 0 100 7

Residential home 100 0 0 100 8

Non-institutional care for substance abusers 48 40 12 100 25

Assisted housing unit forsubstance abusers 83 8 10 100 40

Day centre 60 25 15 100 20


70 30 0 100 23

Assisted housing unit forpersons with mental disorders 21 71 8 100 38

Institutional care for persons with mental disorders 20 80 0 100 10

Assisted housing unit for persons with mental disorders and substance abuse

58 21 21 100 19

Jail 71 21 7 100 14

Hospital 56 44 0 100 9

Social and health advice centres 100 0 0 100 5

Assisted housing 69 31 0 100 16

Service housing 20 80 0 100 5

Institutional care for child wellfare 0 100 0 100 3

Other 50 50 0 100 2


Long-term homeless clients in organisations


Homeless persons

Average Median Min Max Answers

Hostel 0 0 0 0 2

Youth hostel - - - - 0

Shelter 16 10 0 31 5



14 4 0 150 20


13 8 0 39 36

Day centre 25 8 2 164 13


10 5 0 50 21


5 0 0 50 22


4 0 0 18 8


13 13 0 35 14

Jail 32 25 2 100 11

Hospital 4 4 0 8 6

Social and health advice centres

103 103 6 200 2



Child wellfare institutional care 0 0 0 0 2

Other 35 35 0 70 2

Homeless persons in organisations

Long-term homeless (persons)


Hostel 0 0 0 0 2

Youth hostel 3 - - - 1

Shelter 23 23 17 30 4



11 2 0 100 14


11 6 0 39 33

Day centre 15 4 2 90 8


7 3 0 30 19


3 0 0 26 24



14 10 0 35 11

Jail 13 10 0 50 9

Hospital 2 1 0 8 8

Social and health advice centres 4 3 0 10 4




Other0 1


Long-term homeless in organisations

At risk of homelessness (persons)


Hostel 0 - - - 1

Youth hostel - - - - 0

Shelter 0 0 0 0 2



- - - - 0


2 0 0 15 24



3 2 0 16 18


0 0 0 5 23


Institutional care for persons with mental disorders 1 0 0 2 11

Jail 9 8 0 25 11

Hospital 1 2 0 3 5

Social and health advice centres2 1




Other 10 10 0 20 2


Persons at risk of homelessness in organisations

Staying long-time (persons)


Hostel 0 0 0 0 2

Youth hostel 3 - - - 1

Shelter 21 16 0 50 7



0 - - - 1


12 3 0 60 35



1 0 0 10 20


11 9 0 42 26


26 20 0 84 8


9 5 0 50 13

Jail 0 0 0 0 7

Hospital 0 0 0 0 4

Social and health advice centres 0 1



Institutional care for child wellfare

8 8 0 16 2

Other 12 12 0 24 2


Persons staying long-time in organisations

• Most homeless people in organisations were long-term homeless. There are less people living long-term in organisations than homeless persons. Least of all there are persons who are at risk of homelessness.

• Homelessness, risk of homelessness and long-term homelessness are typical for those people accommodating in shelters, residential homes, housing units for people with mental and substance abuse problems and housing unit for substance abusers. There is a lot of long-term homeless clients also in social and health advice centres.

• Living long-term in organisations is most typical in housing units for people with mental problems. People with mental problems, ex-convicts and recovering substance abusers have commonly accomodation problems e.g. getting independent housing.



Comparison of shares and amounts of homeless and long term homeless people according to the housing market questionnaire and the questionnaire made in the study

Homeless people

according to questionnaire

to organisations

(persons)

Homeless people

according to housing market

questionnaire year 2008

(preliminary information)

Long-term homeless of

homeless persons

according to questionnaire to organisations

(persons)

Long-term homeless of

homeless persons

according to housing market questionnaire

year 2008 (persons)

% long-term homeless of homeless persons according to questionnaire to organisations

% long-term homeless of persons homelessaccording to housing market questionnaire year 2008

Espoo 179 486 154 385 86 79

Forssa 13 38 10 20 77 53

Helsinki 913 3150 491 1591 54 51

Hyvinkää 75 74 58 44 77 59

Hämeenlinna 47 51 17 17 36 33

Joensuu 70 103 42 85 60 83

Jyväskylä 167 143 111 55 66 38

Järvenpää 20 74 54 17 270 23

Kotka 13 101 11 40 85 40

Kuopio 40 186 35 33 88 18

Lahti 66 208 54 108 82 52

Lappeenranta 25 47 11 18 44 38

Mikkeli 32 85 25 2 78 2

Oulu 1 112 17 50 1700 45

Porvoo 32 55 12 26 38 47

Riihimäki 26 82 20 58 77 71

Savonlinna 14 38 0 2 0 5

Tampere 611 608 253 214 41 35

Turku 172 347 103 245 60 71

Vaasa 53 31 28 0 53 0

Vantaa 182 611 95 140 52 23

Homeless persons

Outdoors, shelters

Hostels and residential

homes

Rehabilitative units, hospitals,

institutions

Ex-convicts Units without accomodation

Helsinki ARA 80 690 350 40 -

Questionnaire 0 487 169 110 147

Tampere ARA 36 38 125 9 -


Espoo ARA 40 71 68 12 -


Vantaa ARA 32 21 57 9 -


Turku ARA 13 - 243 1 -


Lahti ARA30 40 50 4


Jyväskylä ARA 13 3 8 17 -


Kuopio ARA 12 7 86 3 -


Joensuu ARA 1 - 46 4 -


Oulu ARA 46 - 71 2 -


Homeless according to housing market questionnaire and questionnaire to organisations


Long-term homeless persons

Outdoors, shelters

Hostels and residential

homes

Rehabilitative units,

hospitals, institutions

Ex-convicts Units without accomodation

Helsinki ARA 70 450 350 30 -


Tampere ARA 23 - 41 1 -


Espoo ARA 35 54 50 6 -


Vantaa ARA - - - - -


Turku ARA - - - - -


Lahti ARA 20 30 40 - -


Jyväskylä ARA

- - - - -


Kuopio ARA - - - - -


Joensuu ARA 1 - 35 - -


Oulu ARA 28 - 31 - -



Long-term homeless according to housing market questionnaire and questionnaire to organisations

Information is in most cases collected both manually and electrionically (55 %). Information collection manually (23 %) is as usual as collection electronically (21 %)

Answers %

We could fill a questionnaire about clients with them 158 58

We could ask a client to fill a questionnare himself 89 33

We could fill a questionnaire about clients, but only at organisational level, not at a personal level (client profiles)

41 15

We could fill a questionnaire on behalf of clients 24 9

Other 24 9


Information collection in organisations

Eventual way to collect information in organisation

Organisation has homeless clients *

Organisation has not homeless clients **

No knowledge about clients

homelessness ***

Answers % Answers % Answers %

Homelessness 132 78 21 24 3 27

Cause of homelessness 78 46 13 15 3 27

Duration of homelessness

66 39 12 14 2 18

Age 159 94 66 77 9 82

Gender 156 92 67 78 9 82

Place of domicile 154 91 67 78 8 73

Family status 138 81 61 71 8 73

Nationality 120 71 47 55 6 55

Employment status 128 75 33 38 6 55

Source of income 124 73 48 56 7 64

Use of intoxicant 149 88 56 65 9 82

Mental health problems 132 78 59 69 8 73

Other problems to which client needs cure or assistance

140 82 56 65 7 64

Use of other service (eg. social and health service)

127 75 57 66 6 55

Other 33 19 16 19 2 18

* Ratio to amount of organisations that have homeless people 170, ** Ratio to amount of organisations that have not homeless people 86, *** Ratio to amount of organisations without information about clients’ homelessness 11


Information collection in organisations

Documents

Social Services for Homeless People and the Possibility of a National System of Data Collection A research on measuring homelessness in municipalities