Sweden

Background

Starting in the late 1940s, a comprehensive housing policy was implemented in Sweden by SocialDemocratic governments in order to counteract housing shortage, homelessness, and unequal or unhealthy housing conditions. State subsidies and large municipal housing companies that allocated dwellings according to needs and waiting time were cornerstones in this strategy. However, in the 1990s this policy was dismantled. Housing provision and allocation were deregulated in 1993, and the general housing subventions were, from 1995 on, gradually replaced by provisional contributions targeting special housing for students and the elderly. Since 1994, housing production in Sweden has been “extremely diminutive” (Boverket 2002, 23).

Meanwhile, the municipalities have closed their housing assignment agencies and directed their housing companies to prevent economic loss and residualization, rather than homelessness. In 2002, only 9 of the 289 municipalities in the country still organized housing queues, despite the fact that more than half of the population lived in municipalities with a shortage of housing. Public and private landlords always had equal rent levels, but today they also have similar letting policies and practices of tenant selection and evictions.

Numbers, Development, Features

Homelessness in Sweden is not mapped on a regular basis, and homeless people in general have not been counted since the then-existing housing queues were analyzed in 1990. In 1993 and 1999, respectively, the National Board of Health and Welfare arranged national surveys of homeless clients who, during a certain week, were in touch with primarily local social authorities or nongovernmental organizations. The number resulting from this methodology was about 10,000 in 1993 and 8,400 in 1999, but the definition was more narrow in 1999.

People aged twenty-one and above who are [Page 556]temporarily housed through the local social authorities at a certain date have been counted annually since 1998. Their number has increased continuously and amounted to 12,600 in 2002. There are also indications that the number of rough sleepers has grown in the big cities in recent years, although these tendencies are hard to validate. Many local social authorities regularly count their homeless clients, but taken together, these surveys give a mixed image of the development of homelessness.

Among the homeless clients targeted by the national counts in 1993 and 1999, more than two-thirds were reported to be substance abusers, and one-third to have mental disorders. On the other hand, the majority of people assisted with temporary housing are reported not to be substance abusers. Moreover, people who are homeless but do not need training or support have no reason to contact local social authorities, since these cannot provide permanent housing and most services target substance abusers. Hence, the number and qualities of other homeless people, who stay with friends and relatives or in illegally sublet homes, are unknown and cannot even be estimated.

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