Challenges meeting the homeless strategy in Copenhagen
12-01-2010

In 2010 the work connected with the homeless strategy of the government will seriously begin in the eight participating municipalities. The biggest municipality, the City of Copenhagen, which in 2009 gave shelter to 1.550 of the about 5.000 homeless people in Denmark, is already working on its own strategy.

The social services in the City of Copenhagen already started the development of their own strategy for the capital back in 2007. The strategy was adopted in November 2008 and it is this work the City carries on with the money from the homeless strategy of the government.

The preparatory work is finished

The starting point of the strategy in the City of Copenhagen is among other things a needs analysis demanded by the City in 2008. One of the main points of the strategy was that there is a lack of flow in the existing residences. On account of lacking alternatives some citizens stay too long in the offered residences which were perhaps only meant as a temporary offer.

- There must be a possibility for more people getting access to the short, acute offers. Something points at there being a “block” today in some places because it is difficult to get a residence of your own, tells project leader in the social services of the City of  Copenhagen, Tina Wils.

Besides the needs analysis the municipality has also listened to the collaborators who quite concretely meet the problems in the street. And finally the City has also had a dialogue with the organization of the homeless people, SAND, during the development of the strategy.

More alternative retirement homes accommodations

One of the more permanent housing forms which the City of Copenhagen aims at in order to reduce the number of homeless are the so-called alternative retirement accommodations. Today these exist already in the E-house in Nørrebro plus some care rooms at Sundholm and the City has already positive experiences with these, tells Tina Wils.

The homeless get older and many have an extensive need of nursing and care, but quite often also a behaviour which is difficult to handle in the normal retirement homes, she says.

The plan is therefore to establish 20 quite new alternative retirement home accommodations in the City of Copenhagen, of which the first 6 are expected to be ready at the end of 2010. In addition the City will provide more of these accommodations by changing the use of some of the dwellings which the City already has at its disposal. For example, some §107-dwellings (temporary dwellings for citizens with reduced physical or mental functional ability) will be transformed into §108-dwellings, as alternative retirement accommodations.

Emergency sleeping cubicles

One of the very short acute offers which the City of Copenhagen is working on in their homeless strategy is the establishment of some sleeping cubicles in the street. The idea is that they can house for example a Cocaine addict for a single night, because these, on account of their behaviour cannot fit into a shelter. This idea of sleeping cubicles originates from Japan, where busy business people use them.

There is still work to be done before the project finds its final, precise form. However, an essential principle for the project is that each individual citizen must have a contact to for example a street level collaborator. And precisely this contact is important, thinks Tina Wils.

- Obviously it is a low threshold offer but it requires contact with a street level collaborator, and we can use that contact to carry on, she explains about the idea behind the sleeping cubicles.

Another sphere of contribution in relation to the acute offers in the City of Copenhagen is to create more secure night cafés.

- Many, especially the more vulnerable persons, stay away from the night cafés because they don’t feel secure. We have got 2 million kroner in order to change the physical settings so that they can feel safer, tells Tina Wils.

Something which might secure more safety in the night cafés is, among other things, a better division of specific areas for women and men or quite simply, a nicer and better arrangement of the interior.

A speedier case handling

The third target in the government’s outline of objectives is that no citizens ought to stay more than 3-4 months in a shelter or reception centre if they are ready to move into their own flat. In order to help the citizens to move ahead more quickly the City of Copenhagen is systematizing the review of the citizen’s situation in a new way.

- It concerns quite simply to find out quickly what is required and what to bring into action. We are working on the development of some questionnaires which are to form the basis of the interviews we make with citizens. The first questionnaires are being tested out in some institutions, tells Tina Wils.

At the same time the city has introduced a so-called “advanced case handling” – a case handling directly in the street or in the drop-in shelter. A team consisting of an investigative street level co-worker and a case worker will in the future be able to deal with the citizen’s problems at once in stead of sending the citizen on in the system.

Young people out of the reception centres

Another of the four targets in the homeless strategy of the government is that “no young people ought to stay in a reception centre but should be offered other solutions.” With 204 young Copenhageners between 18 and 24 in a reception centre or shelter in 2008 (figures from the report on the government’s homeless strategy from the Ministry of the Interior and Social Services) Copenhagen is, not surprisingly, the municipality which has the biggest challenge concerning young homeless people. According to the government’s homeless strategy the goal of the city is to reduce that figure by 60 per cent in 2012. This will become a big challenge, Tina Wils recognizes.

It is difficult to find cheap housing in Copenhagen which is payable with the amount you get from the Social Security and if the young person is below 25 it is extremely difficult. (Young people below 25 get a lower amount from the Social Security.

One of the ways Copenhagen will remedy the problem is to reserve some of the city’s special flats for young people. It is quite simply too expensive to build new blocks of flats so these have to be found in the already existing social tenant housing. In addition there is a housing offer in Rådmandsstræde 60 which has been renovated and in the future it will be secured by a 24-hour manning, tells Tina Wils.

It will probably be unrealistic to say that we are not going to have young people in reception centres but Rådmandsstræde can help them to move on.

FACTS
The Homeless strategy is a pool-financed programme supported by the government and the parties behind the SATS-pool. The primary purpose of the programme is to reduce homelessness in Denmark. 500 million kroner have been appropriated for the programme in the period of 2009-2012.

The eight participating municipalities are: Albertslund, Esbjerg, Frederiksberg, Høje-Taastrup, København, Odens, Randers and Århus.

The four primary goals for the government’s homeless strategy are:

• No citizens shall live a life in the street
• No young people ought to stay in a reception centre but should be offered other solutions
• Stay at a residence shelter should not exceed 3-4 months for citizens who are ready to move into their own residence with the necessary support
• Release from prison or discharge from available treatment option or hospital should imply a solution        of the housing situation