How wealthy nations define, count, and address homelessness — and what the international evidence says about what works.
Homelessness exists in every wealthy nation, but its scale varies enormously depending on how countries define the problem, invest in housing, and structure their social protection systems. Finland has reduced homelessness for seven consecutive years through a national Housing First strategy. The United States recorded its highest-ever count in 2024. The difference is not prosperity — it is policy. These articles place the American homelessness crisis in international context: comparing approaches, examining the global Housing First evidence, and exploring how the legal and constitutional framing of housing as a right shapes what governments do and what they achieve.
How the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Finland, and Japan define and count homelessness differently — and what the variation in rates and trajectories reveals about the relationship between policy and outcomes.
Read moreFrom New York to Helsinki to Montréal — the randomized controlled trials, national strategies, and 80–90 percent retention rates that made Housing First the global standard.
Read moreScotland, France, Finland, and South Africa have enacted enforceable housing rights. The United States has not. How nations frame housing — as a right or a commodity — shapes whether homelessness is treated as a policy failure or a market outcome.
Read moreThe US homelessness crisis at federal scale: data, programs, funding, and the populations most affected.
Learn moreEvidence-informed approaches that have been shown to reduce homelessness and improve outcomes.
Learn moreHow Texas state policy shapes homelessness outcomes across 254 counties and eleven Continuums of Care.
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