Helsinki - owns 60k social housing units, available universally to any resident regardless of income level - owns 70% land w/in city limits - has a zoning monopoly - runs its own construction company - 1 in 7 residents live in city-owned housing
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Finland does not just “do housing first,” they have committed themselves to a vision of society and a shared understanding of what housing is and what it is for that includes everyone.
aug 12, 2025, 1:33 pm • 4 1 • view
Housing first policy in the USA is effective to a degree but ultimately it will fail politically (as we are seeing, I think) because it’s less than a half measure.
aug 12, 2025, 1:34 pm • 0 0 • view
@ryanlcooper.com I’d love your take on this on the podcast or in print. Finland’s policies in this area (and I assume others) are thoroughgoing in a way policy in the U.S. never is.
aug 12, 2025, 1:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah if it's mediated through the market it's hopeless. In Toronto's housing market if prices drop at all regardless of programs developers just cancel projects or leave them fallow until prices jump again, they collude so that supply *can never* outstrip demand enough to lower prices. The result?
aug 12, 2025, 1:56 pm • 3 1 • view
Exactly. Even when there's appropriate supply, the cost of housing (as a commodity) rises roughly 2x compared to wages historically.
aug 12, 2025, 5:15 pm • 0 0 • view
It's cool that that happens and nobody is willing to do anything about it even when developers are making obscenely large profits and the quality of new housing stock is absolutely appalling
aug 12, 2025, 5:20 pm • 2 0 • view