IPPH and 8 80 Cities Partner on the Implementing Healthy Urban Policy Workshop
At its most fundamental level, healthy cities research depends on partnerships between researchers, municipalities, and community organizations to identify needs and co-design projects to help address those needs.
The IPPH team recently accompanied 8 80 Cities, and four HCRI-funded Canadian teams from Hamilton, Burlington, Kingston, and Yellowknife for an action-packed five days of learning, exchange, and inspiration in Helsinki, Finland as part of the Spring 2025 Implementing Healthy Urban Policy Workshop. A number of themes were covered focusing on inclusive city-building, co-creating public spaces, active transit and mobility, housing, and place-making.
What We Learned: Homelessness can be eliminated
As of 2023, Finland was the only country in the EU to have accomplished a long-term reduction in homelessness, going from 20,000 unhoused individuals in the 1980s to 3,429 in 2023, of which under a third are 'long-term homeless' (over 1 year). Progress continues thanks to the innovative Housing First approach.
One of many highlights of the workshop was a walking tour of the Jatkasaari neighbourhood led by Juha Kahila, Head of International Affairs at the Y-Foundation, the largest Finnish NGO dedicated to providing social housing and housing for homeless individuals.
Juha introduced us to Finland's "Housing First" approach, which promotes permanent, affordable housing for varying needs and circumstances (there are more than 400,000 state-subsidized rental apartments in Finland, with tenant selection based on housing needs); tailored support services, including psychosocial supports; integrated homeless prevention efforts (including early intervention support); low threshold work activities that encourage the diverse skills of individuals; and normality (normal rental agreements and universal social and health services).
Finland's success has much to teach us here in Canada.
Eliminating homelessness requires a long-term, whole of society approach with innovative policies, practices, and multiple sectors being leveraged to achieve a common goal.
Affordable housing is not enough – people require individualized care so they (re)build trust in the people and systems that have repeatedly failed them.
And finally, and most importantly, it is possible to eliminate homelessness, and we must not give up on under-housed people.
About the Implementing Healthy Urban Policy Workshop
This was the fifth and final iteration of this workshop, funded by HCRI, to support the implementation and evaluation of projects that improve health and well-being in cities.
A total of 16 city teams from across Canada have now taken part.
Unique to this workshop is the intersectoral and interdisciplinary nature of the participating city teams. Each is composed of a population and public health researcher and four city-leaders—a senior elected official, a senior health policy official or Medical Officer of Health, and senior-level staff from city planning departments or community-based organizations.
Teams draw on the learnings from the workshop to develop action plans and intervention research projects for their own cities, building on the issues they initially identified before the workshop. Following the workshop, teams host at least one planning or knowledge mobilization event in the following year on their proposed interventions for policy-makers and the public.
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