The number of homeless people in Denmark
20-08-2007

The first report Homelessness in Denmark. National Survey (In Danish: Hjemløshed i Danmark. National kortlægning), on the number of homeless people in Denmark was published august 14, 2007. The report is only available in Danish but you can read a summary here.

In the beginning of 2007 the Ministry of Social Affairs initiated an investigation on the exact number of homeless people in Denmark. The survey is carried out by the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) by the authors Lars Benjaminsen & Ivan Christensen.  

Public institutions as well as NGOs working with/having contact with homeless people were asked to fill out a questionnaire on every single person they had contact to in week 6, 2007. The method is similar to those applied in surveys in Sweden and Norway. The definition of a homeless person in the research is inspired by FEANTSAs definition, the so called ETHOS-classification. FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless, classifies homelessness in relation to their housing-status and this makes it possible to measure the number of homeless people. You can see FEANTSAs ETHOS-classification, 2007 here: http://www.feantsa.org/files/indicators_wg/ETHOS2007/general/ethos_2007.pdf.

The result of the survey is a snapshot and shows that the total number of homeless people in week 6, 2007, was 5.253 homeless people. There are of cause some biases why the number of 5.253 persons must be regarded as a minimum. The ETHOS-classification also includes people in accommodation for immigrants, people living in extreme overcrowding, women in women’s shelter, persons in threat of eviction and those in threat of violence. These people are not included in the Danish survey and in the definition on homelessness in the survey.

Sleeping conduct: 11 pct. of 5.253 homeless people slept rough, 43 pct. stayed in accommodation for homeless people and 20 pct. slept by friends and family (this number is underestimated because many of those living by friends and family do not have contact to the social system) in week 6, 2007.

Geography and age: Furthermore 3/5 of all 5.253 are in and around Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Similar to the level in other Scandinavian capitals there are 3.8 homeless persons pr. 1000 citizens in the municipality of Copenhagen. About 20 pct. have an ethnical background that is different from Danish. About 25 pct. of the homeless people are young people under 30 years and this indicates a continuous inflow to the group of homeless people.

Years in homelessness, mental illness and addiction: 30 pct. of 5.253 have been homeless more than two years, 52 pct. get social security benefits and 25 pct. get anticipatory pension (a social security benefit available to persons aged 18 to 67, who are not able to work). 30 pct. of the homeless people have a mental illness and 36 pct. of them sleep roughly. 69 pct. have addiction problems: 45 pct. are addicted to alcohol, 33 pct. of hash/khat, 25 pct. narcotics and 13 pct. medicine.

The causes of homelessness: Mental illness is regarded as the cause of homelessness for 22 pct., drug-addiction problems for 31 pct., alcohol-abuse for 33 pct., release from prison for 6 pct. and 9 pct. is placed in probation. 16 pct. explains the reasons as eviction from home, 11 pct. as the lack of housing in the local municipality (mostly young homeless people and people with refugee/immigrant background respond to this) and 15 pct. that they could not stay by friends and family any longer.  

Starting from the national survey and the results above the Minister of Social Affairs earmarked 600 millions of DKK for 1000 homes for homeless people. The local municipalities can apply for the funds set aside for the housing and the funding comes from the Rate adjustment pool.

If you want to know more about the survey you are welcome to contact projekt UDENFORs information officer Serap Erkan: e-mail: se@udenfor.dk.

You can also search for more information about SFI on their homepage: www.sfi.dk.