Often when we look at the problem of homelessness in cities in the United States, homeless advocates, city leaders, and others will view the cause of the problem as insufficient government and social support for the poor and those struggling with problems like mental illness, disability, substance abuse, job loss, loss of housing, serious health issues, or wages too low to pay for housing. Then, things often seem brighter on the other side of the Atlantic, where, in Europe, we imagine that countries which have better safety nets, more social and economic support for the poor, would naturally deal much better with these issues and as a result, not have homelessness.
Yet, there is homelessness in “welfare states” or nations with more of a strong collective structure to support the poor — such as Denmark. Denmark is sometimes cited as the nation with the “happiest people on earth”, and it’s the culture from whence derives the particularly delightful cultural aspect of “hygge” which has become better known in the US as of the last year.
Actually, neither Denmark nor the other Nordic or Scandinavian nations which provide support for their citizens’ basic needs, are truly “socialist” countries. In her book The Nordic Theory of Everything, Anu Partanen explains the frustration and impatience that Finns have with their country being labelled “Socialist.” “Every time I hear an American refer to Finland as a socialist country, I feel like I’ve been transported back to the 1950’s….our nation fought three brutal wars against socialism in the 20th century to protect our freedom, independence, and free-market system.”
Her book is actually a superb one, which has much to offer in terms of guidance to the powers that be in the USA, on how we could collectively produce a happier society where people actually experienced freedom and independence. Her view after growing up in Finland and then moving to America, is that while America is extolled for values of freedom and independence, we dont’ have much of either, because of the lack of support for basic needs, which leads us to live lives filled with fear that we might fall through the cracks. According to Anu, abour 46% of American women fear that they might become homeless, even women with incomes over $100k a year. This is because our society is so badly structured, where people can end up in huge debt for medical expenses even when they have health insurance, where there is inadequate support for the jobless or poor, or the elderly or disabled, where people stay in jobs they hate because they are overly dependent on health insurance from employers, which should instead be coming from the government.
In any case, in spite of the marvelous security systems in place in Nordic nations, people still end up homeless there, which provides some important suggestions about what causes homelessness and what helps solve it.
This article explores homelessness in Denmark.
Some of the conclusions of that article’s author’s study about homelessness in Denmark are as follows:
Homelessness is the culmination of a series of defeats over one’s lifetime rather than the result of a single event.
Homelessness is not a housing or financial problem, but a condition generally caused by a lack of social competencies.
The homeless population is continually exposed to social demands and expectations to which they are not prepared to respond. They may not have the capabilities to fulfill cultural norms, such as maintaining a job or constantly displaying motivation and stability.
Note the interesting conclusion that homelessness is NOT a housing or financial problem. That this conclusion was drawn in one place, suggests it is probably true in other places, since human dynamics are similar around the globe. Though one certainly couldn’t say that homelessness is never caused by housing or financial problems, I think this study does suggest that even if people are given governmental support of an essentially socialist “welfare state”, they could still end up homeless if they have no social competence.
This article on homelessness in Denmark indicates that as in America, people with mental illness or substance abuse issues are likely to end up homeless regardless how much help their society provides:
The Copenhagen Post reported that, similar to many other western nations, the homeless in Denmark tend to suffer from alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness.
One of Denmark’s street people is Henrik ‘Popeye’ Jørgensen, who at age 50 has been homeless for more than half of his life.
“I get angry at myself, thinking about the bad choices I have made in my life,” he told the Post.
The Danish government has provided apartments for some homeless people, in order to give them some sense of stability. But the policy does not work for everyone.
“If you are put in an apartment with bare walls, you feel isolated with no one to talk to, and you go back onto the street,” said Poul Strove Nielsen, the editor of Hus Forbi, a street newspaper, according to the Post.
This quote also supports the sense that some observers of the homeless dilemma in the US have obtained, that many people are on the street largely because there is a certain “street culture” that they seek, which they find there.
A 2015 article indicated that homelessness is actually rising in Denmark, and is highest among young people (whom one would think would be least likely to have issues such as disability or illness which present obstacles to working) and among foreigners.
In fact, in this article, a study apparently found that only 3 out of 44 people sleeping outside in one area studied, were Danish. That’s less than 10% Danish, over 90% of the homeless were foreigners who were in the country illegally.
Problems caused by illegal immigrants have some of the same negative impacts on societies, regardless where in the world they are occurring.
This article indicates that the migrant crisis is leading to more homeless in Nordic nations.
This study on homelessness in Denmark found that homelessness was highest among youth:
As well, the study found that
About 4 out of 5 homeless people in Denmark has either mental illness, substance
abuse or both. About half have a mental illness, about two thirds have a substance abuse problem and one out of three are mentally ill substance abusers. Only about 1 out of 5 have neither of these problems. The figures are roughly similar for the young homeless people between 18 and 24 years,
Elsewhere, apparently the number of homeless people in Sweden doubled between 2005 and 2011.
One article suggested that, as in the US, some people may be “drawn” to be homeless in certain areas if there are systems there which support that, such as recycling scavenging.
This article has some comparisions between homelessness in the US versus in Denmark.
The Homeless Quandary 
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