Counteracting the stigma of homelessness: The Finnish Housing First strategy as educational work

Abstract

There is growing concern globally about homelessness in many affluent cities and the stigma attached to this phenomenon. The study focuses on the ways in which the Housing First strategy developed and implemented in Finland since 2008 is counteracting the stigma of homelessness by facilitating collective learning and agency formation. The study substantiates this conceptual argument with the help of examples from accounts by young people experiencing or having experienced homelessness, and by professionals working in supported housing units. The theoretical framework of the study builds on the Vygotskian concept of secondary deficit and the activity-theoretical concepts of expansive learning and transformative agency. The analysis leads to an initial model depicting the collective learning and agency steps among institutional actors and neighborhoods. The analysis shows the educational role played by multiple actors and institutions in the Finnish homelessness strategy to foster new modes of actions not only among the clients but also within the broad society. This role is exerted by means of systematically implemented negotiations and agreements which establish effective pathways out of marginalization and out of stigmatic orientations.