UG reference: The new homeless

In housing shortage Sweden, a home has gone from being an obvious right - to a competition with tough competition.

When new groups become homeless, the question comes to the forefront: Who deserves to be helped by society to find a home?

It is Tuesday evening in October 2019. In this house length in Kålltorp in Gothenburg live people who have been given an apartment by the social services. Now the family in this apartment is forced to relocate.

Emma and her dad Stefan are preparing to leave their apartment.

Stefan Billberg: We're going out, the 31st. On Thursday. Then we will be out of the apartment.

Stefan has worked for many years as an appliance installer, but got rid of his job just over six months ago. Emma is in her second year of high school and her little brother Johan is in high school.

Emma: But here's a lot of stuff, memories, pictures. Conformation photo, name. But this is how memories are. Here I have pictures from when I went to school, the little school. Photo album, pictures of mom example, ah, kind of like a normal girl wants in her room, but which I have in the carton.

The family got the accommodation here many years ago. Stefan says that the children's mother was contracted here for medical reasons and when she died of the disease, Stefan and the children were told that they would need to move out.

Stefan Billberg: Marita passed away in April 2017. Two or three weeks later, it only comes out out then out. Because then ... and then I stood in the middle of a grief. And first there, I got really fucked up. I was really cracked.

But Stefan has debts with the Crown Guardian, and a short time in the housing queue, so it turned out to be difficult to move out and they have until now been postponed to stay in the apartment. But now it's serious.

Stefan Billberg: I ​​think it's so damned wrong that we should move out of the apartment. Actually. For that ... I can't go anywhere, I can't stay in a hostel with my kids huh. I really can't do that.

Reporter: Isn't it the idea that you should stay this long in such an apartment?

Stefan Billberg: No, that's not the point. But the housing market looks like it does in Gothenburg. If you do not have five or six years at Boplats you get, so it is quite impossible. If you are not a multi-millionaire, you cannot buy an apartment, you cannot pay usury rates, you cannot pay black rents. You can't hold on all the time.

In the decision that Social Services has given Stefan, there are several reasons why he may not stay. He has not done enough to get himself a home, and he has not paid all his rent. But there is also a wording that should prove to be important, for many more than just Stefan.

Stefan Billberg: They have said that I do not belong to the category of living in the apartments. I'm not the target group.

The family does not belong to the target group as the social services help to get a home. They belong to a group that has nowhere to live but has no other social problems. In big cities, they are becoming more and more and they are called structurally homeless. And a new routine that the social service in Gothenburg has recently developed, makes it clear that this group should not be entitled to housing through the social service.

Reporter: And what do you think of this Thursday that is coming.

Emma: I'm ready. We move. But where? That's a bit what I'm worried about. Where to live. But I'm ready.

Everyone has the right to a home, according to the Swedish Constitution. But there are housing shortages in 240 of the country's municipalities and several groups find it difficult to even enter the housing market. For them there is a safety net to ensure that no one needs to sleep on the street, but it looks different depending on who you are.

In Lund we meet Marcus Knutagård. He has long researched homelessness and social housing issues. He sees that more groups than before now are competing for fewer apartments, ie apartments that economically and socially weak groups have the opportunity to get a contract on.

Marcus Knutagård: If, for example, young people today find it difficult to get out of the housing market and move away from home, then it is clear that there will be competition between groups. Who should get housing first, if you have had a previous abuse then you should get housing before someone else who does not have an abuse behind them. It is very easy to create this kind of conflict or values ​​who should and should not have when in essence, the home is a human right and something that is crucial for everyone

It is crucial which group you are considered to be part of if you are to get a housing from the social services. The group that is abused and mentally ill is called socially homeless, and if they are also considered to have special difficulties, they may be entitled to a home. If you are structurally homeless, you do not have that right.

Reporter: Can we come in? Thanks. How's it going?

Emma: That's it. Now we live here.

Reporter: How do you feel then?

Emma: Uh. It's a nice bed. I can't do that much. That's the thing. I'm positive. It's a nice bed. It's going great

Reporter: But you're such a brave man.

E: Yeah yeah. If you look at things poorly, it will be worse than it is. You have to find the good things.

Stefan's family has moved out of their apartment, stocked the furniture and moved into a room at this hostel. When Stefan rented the social service he was responsible for paying the rent himself, with salary and later a-cash. But the A-cash is not enough to pay around SEK 1000 a day as it costs here, so now they receive emergency assistance from the social service.

The cost of living for homeless people in Gothenburg has skyrocketed in recent years. Between 2011 and 2018, costs increased from SEK 500 million to almost SEK 1 billion. And that is one of the reasons why the social services have now introduced a new routine. Eva Saletti is the sector manager and spokesperson on housing social issues in Gothenburg.

Eva Saletti: It is a new routine that affects a small part of people who are homeless. It concerns those who have no other social problems. And that has come in an emergency.

The new routine clearly states that this group does not have the right to receive housing from the social services. Instead, they will receive money for emergency roofs over their heads, the day they stand in the street. If there are special reasons, the social service can place the person in the municipality's own emergency housing. Whether you receive money or a placement, the decision applies one week at a time.

Eva Saletti: We take, as well as the responsibility that the legislation has intended us to do. That is, we have an utmost responsibility for people not to live on the street. If they are in urgent need. And of course, the people who have social problems should support us, who need other support from us than a home. And this routine does not affect them. But it concerns the other part. But I think it is important that this is a fundamental issue. That the social services can not, we do not control the issue of building housing ... It is not our mission, but it is other planning organizations in the municipality that will work on this issue. That there is enough housing for the city's residents.

There are no clear wording in the Social Services Act about who is entitled to a housing through the social services. On the other hand, the social services in the municipalities are leaning towards some legal cases for guidance, where it is interpreted that housing can be given if the person is completely homeless and has special difficulties in the housing market. This does not apply if you have difficulty in obtaining a home solely because of the general housing shortage.

Based on this, the City Council in Gothenburg has developed a guideline for what should apply. It is therefore not about a change in the law, but a need that arises from interpreting who, according to the law, is entitled to housing. The need seems to have arisen when large groups of homeless people no longer clearly fit into the target group that the social service usually helps.

In an industrial area in Västra Frölunda in Gothenburg there is the aid organization Reningsborg's accommodation. Until recently, they had an agreement with the City of Gothenburg, which placed so-called structurally homeless people here. Now the agreement is terminated but here you have continued to bring in homeless people, and now call themselves instead of hostels.

Ammar Ahmed: It is not open to tourists no. But it is the same target group that has really been placed in housing without support and has now changed routines within the municipality so it has become a hostel. The problem is that there is a shortage of housing and everyone knows it. It's no secret.

Fareeda and Saad Alo from Syria live in a room at the aid organization's hostel, together with their three children. Saad and Fareeda learn Swedish and apply for a job, and since a month ago they are acutely homeless. When their second-hand contracts were terminated, the family was unable to find a new apartment.

Saad Alo: Last solution for us to go to the social, we do not want that. We have tried more than three years, we are paying private till getting thru the Boplats or something like that, but there was no choice that we have three kids on the road when we came to them. They said we can't do anything until we see that you are here with your bags, which means you have no place to sleep. They don't have an apartment to give us. We were recommended to go to the hostel, the hostel, and they named one person in their office to help us find or teach us to search for the apartment.

Reporter: So this is what you get now, you get one of these, and then you pay downstairs?

Seed: Yes, we pay.

The family is not considered to be part of the social service's target group, but is still homeless. They receive money on a card, to pay the emergency accommodation, one week at a time.

The Alo family social service pays SEK 1100 a day for their room. When we first met them, they lived here for about a month, at a cost of just over SEK 30,000.

Marcus Knutagård: The logic is short-term, which often makes it very much more expensive, because even if it is thought that the individual could find a home after a short time himself, we have seen that it is often very difficult, you stay under what was supposed to be a very short solution, maybe several years, and if you then think that a shelter or such a day apartment cost that is between 30-50,000 a month and we know what a rental cost is, then it is clear that It would have been much better to do give housing first and instead of putting money on things that we know will not be good for anyone.

Social manager Eva Saletti says that even after the new routine's introduction, where you get money one week at a time, people live for a long time in housing that is paid for with emergency assistance. And if the costs will fall, you do not know yet.

Eva Saletti. After all, we have families that live for quite a long time before finding a solution.

Reporter: And that is also very expensive.

Eva Saletti: Yes ... but we have to take into account the children's perspective. And that effort we had before too, so it is no different.

Reporter: Yes. But I still think that you have to live a family of children, say a week and it costs 7-8 thousand for a week. And so you live there week after week, month after month. Instead of living in an apartment, if the social service had chosen that line instead.

Eva Saletti: The social services are not really entitled to buy apartments.

Reporter: No, but you rent apartments.

Eva Saletti: Yes and there we have these initiatives where I say that there are about over 1000 contracts that are municipal contracts. Which goes to people who in different ways need housing. Where you can live for about 18 months and if it works you have to take over the contract.

Reporter: Well, above all, is the other group, socially homeless?

Eva Saletti: Yes. It is.

Reporter: So it's not about this group.

Eva Saletti: No you can say that. No, you're right. No, that's it.

Reporter: Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have such a solution even for the structurally homeless?

Eva Saletti: So, if you get back to what is the mission of the social service and which is the guideline, it is very clear that the social service does not have the mission to solve the housing shortage in the city.

Reporter: Hi

Mohammed: All right?

Reporter: That's good. Do you live here?

Mohammed: Yes.

Reporter: We make a program about the housing situation in Gothenburg you can say. About people who do not get housing.

Mohammed: It's very boring. It's not good at all. I live here in Sweden 6.5 years and I have, never, no apartment.

Reporter: No.

Reporter: Do you live here yourself or?

M: With my child.

Reporter: How old is he then?

Muhammad: Nine. Nine. And alone dad. It is very boring and there are no apartments.

Reporter: Do you get rejected?

Stefan: Yeah.

Reporter: At this accommodation?

Stefan: Yeah at this place. So now we have nowhere to live at all.

Reporter: And you got it now?

Stefan: I got this now. 14.15 I got it.

Reporter: You got five days?

Stefan: Five days paid.

Reporter: And then it's rejection, after that?

Stefan: Right.

Reporter: And why? I do not really understand.

Stefan: I'll be able to solve my situation myself. And I get a cash register on Wednesday, so then I have to pay for it and then I can seek emergency assistance again then in that case if I do not have money.

Reporter: And what does this cost then?

Stefan: It costs 1270 a day.

Reporter: Here?

Stefan: Oh yeah.

Reporter: On Wednesday you get…

Stefan: Then I get a cash register.

Reporter: But is it enough to pay here?

Stefan: One night. One and a half. I get 2250 a week from the a-cash. So I don't know what to do simply

After talking to the social service, Stefan understands that he has been denied that he has used some of the money for the emergency housing for other things. He says it's about the cost of storing the furniture and moving boxes and packaging.

Reporter: Do you mean this means you have to move out of here today?

Stefan: Yeah.

Mohammed Abughalioun: I live here 6.5 years, but I do not have the feeling of being at home. I'm not home here. Like homeless people. No security. I told the social, I brought my child here, I have no apartment. I move here and there and here and there. So I think I should send my son back. It's not good there but what should I do?

Reporter: Where are you from?

Mohammed Abughalion: Palestine

Saad Alo: This is not our wish to be in a place like this. But it was last solution. We didn't find any other solution cause you know the crisis, you know better than us about this. A lot of families have the same problem but for us, for me if I am a bachelor there is now problem but with three kid0s it's a bit tough, difficult.

A large part of the so-called structurally homeless are foreign-born. In the latest national survey, the National Board of Health found that 43 percent of all homeless people came from other countries. But we have not yet fully seen the effects on the housing market of the refugee crisis in 2015.

Many of those who came to Sweden have not yet entered the ordinary housing market, this depends on how the municipalities have chosen to interpret the new Housing Act.

From SVT Stockholm 2016.

“As of today, all municipalities will be required to receive adult new arrivals for residence. For Stockholm, this means a dramatic increase in reception and that you can no longer refer to the housing shortage. "

The Settlement Act came into force in 2016 and meant that newcomers were distributed among Sweden's municipalities. The municipalities became obliged to arrange housing for the designated persons. But the law was met by criticism from some municipalities, who felt that the housing shortage was too great for them to arrange housing for everyone.

From Report and Current.

"We will have to say no, we will not be able to do this." Report 2018

"Right now, we see that it is very tough to receive more refugees in a good way." Report 2018

“The task cannot be solved simply because there are no homes.” Current 2017

The municipalities finally received their assigned new arrivals. But housing was arranged in very different ways. The law does not specify exactly how or for how long the designated persons will get a home. In Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg, so-called transit homes with fixed-term contracts were arranged, between four and five years.

For the large group that came under the refugee wave, the contracts will expire within three years, starting this year. In Gothenburg, there are more than 1000 households with over 1000 children who are about to leave their apartments. At the end of February, the first households will receive their redundancies.

At the property office, people have been flagged so that acute homelessness is expected to increase.

Erik Gedeck: Increased homelessness is a risk if households cannot arrange their own housing. And of course, this brings with it a number of different problems, of course, with social vulnerability, increased costs for the municipality, impact on the children's growing environment and other things.

Reporter: But how big is this risk of homelessness?

Erik Gedeck: It is very difficult to put a number on it, now we are working hard to get as many people as possible to another residence, to try to support them in that work. But we have been clear from our role as service people that these are risks that we need to take seriously, need to gather strength to minimize the risks, but to put a figure on how many we think cannot handle it, it is very difficult to do.

The Government's intention was that the municipalities should give the newly arrived permanent contracts as much as possible. But many municipalities did not.

Erik Gedeck: If you look at the big city municipalities in the country, my image is that most do not offer first-lease. Then there are some smaller municipalities that do it. What is a challenge is whether many municipalities are now starting to look for housing at the same time because they may have four-year agreements or five-year agreements. And then they fall out pretty much at the same time and then there will be a great competition across the country.

Gothenburg stands out with the number of people who are soon forced to leave their transit homes. Only a few have found their own contracts here and moved out prematurely. At the same time, the average time to get an apartment via housing queue has increased from 4 years 2016 to between 5 and 6 years 2019. For those who have to move out, only coaching remains in seeking an apartment.

The city has introduced something called a housing coach that informs about how the housing market works, and helps people to search for housing throughout Sweden. This is largely about registering in municipal housing queues, with private hosts and writing letters to landlords.

Reporter: But these housing coaches can't do magic. There are not many apartments available.

Erik Gedeck: We have good experiences, we already have operations in the municipality with people who work to support households who are homeless with searching for housing and it is actually possible to bring housing. Maybe not always in Gothenburg, but in different wreath municipalities, a bit into the country.

Reporter: Is that what the solution will be in the end?

Erik Gedeck: It is difficult to say how many people will get housing in Gothenburg, how many who will get housing in another municipality. We do not know.

Emma: Do you know what we do? We carry everything out.

Stefan: Yeah we're gonna wear it all out.

Emma: But listen to me. We carry everything out. And then we load the car. And then I wait with the furniture, then you go there, unload, go here again, load the furniture. So I wait here with the rest.

Stefan: Well, we have to empty the room. That's how we do it.

Emma: Then we have started. We must take what we have. We can't sit here and wait.

Stefan: No, we can't do that.

Emma: Someone has to be positive in this family.

Reporter: And tonight. Where do you go?

Stefan: Right now, I don't really know. So they. At the same time, I have put myself in the situation so that I can solve it for the sake of the children.

The families we meet all belong to the same group, the structurally homeless without social problems. The big cities have different definitions of who are considered homeless. But according to their calculations, Stockholm has 2,400 homeless people, and about a quarter belong to this category. In Gothenburg, it is estimated that the group constitutes half of the city's 5000 homeless. In Malmö, 2000 people are counted on homelessness, and even half of them are structurally homeless. Gothenburg and Malmö, in principle, introduced the new routine that clearly excludes this group from obtaining housing through the social services

We are back at Stefan's old apartment. Several of the apartments in the house echo empty. These are apartments that the district's social services rented by a public housing company since 1975.

Plans have been made to liquidate the housing here and have started to empty the houses. But over a year later, the district does not know what to do with the properties even though people have been relocated. At the same time, Stefan's family has lived in hostels, at a significantly higher cost.

It's the end of November, a month since we last met Emma and Stefan. Emma is on her way home from school, home to the hostel. After they were rejected and moved out, Stefan went to the social service, which gave them money to return to the hostel for the night.

Stefan: I have to say that the hostel is great. From that point of view it is great. It is entirely. In other words.

They have since received continued grants, one week at a time.

Stefan: You get money for a week, you get. Then when it's the break day then, I can't go down before but I have to go down the same day. So Thursday through Thursday. So every Thursday I go down and seek assistance again then.

Reporter: Then there are a few hours when you can't be here?

Stefan: Yes it is. It is.

Reporter: So you have to move out every time?

Stefan: Moves out our stuff every Thursday. Every Thursday we move the stuff out.

Reporter: And then in?

Stefan: And then in again. Now we have had to change four times.

Emma: I'm a person who has to be alone sometimes. But the ... positive me. No, but I get very annoyed at not being able to be myself. But it does well. I have school, I have practice, then I am myself.

Reporter: Do your friends know that you live here?

Emma: No. No. Not even my teachers. No one knows.

Reporter: Why not then?

Emma: Why should they know about it? It is not important information.

Reporter: No, thought if it might be nice to tell such things maybe.

Emma: No, technically, it doesn't bother me that I live here. So, sure, it bothers me that I live here and do not have my own apartment. But I feel that the school should not know about this. What are they going to do? Nothing. No, then, no idea to tell. If they can't do anything, then it's no idea to know the problem. That's how I feel. Then there will be less worry, people who are worried about me and everything.

Stefan has been unemployed for almost a year, but now he has got a new job as an appliance installer, which he will soon start.

Stefan starts tomorrow.

Stefan: Tomorrow yes. So now it begins. As we said, now life begins to turn again. Do it. Instead of limping around all the time. Jajemen.

But if the family does not find any accommodation soon, he must still continue to seek assistance from the social services as it costs between 18,000 and 32,000 a month to stay at the hostel.

In order to receive continued emergency assistance at the hostel cost, reimbursement requirements are set. You have to search a large number of apartments every week and show it to the social service. The basic rule is that you should apply for housing throughout Sweden.

Stefan: Then it was the housing secretary who said that there is an apartment, or there is a hostel up there in Dalarna that we have great contact with, the whole city of Gothenburg then, she said. That's really good. It's cheap rent and such. Yes. Okay. But ... what should I do there? What should we do there as a family? Start over?

If you were offered an apartment, it is risky to refuse. Then you risk getting rid of the assistance from the social service.

Stefan: Instead of helping the families of children with a decent life. Just throw them out and wish them luck and ask them to move, land and kingdom around, for the big cities to be attractive.

Eva Salett: If you are a family with children and it takes 5-6 years before you can get your own contract. Then you have to think about how should I handle this situation until then? But it is also so that you look at; if you have work here, you have time with your children that you do not live with, or if you are for medical reasons. Then they weigh very heavily. Then you can't move from here. So this is in a dialogue with the families and it is not quite simple, but I also think it is important to think about that perspective as well.

Reporter: As I understand it, you can also risk getting rid of your assistance if you refuse an apartment, even if it is far away.

Eva Saletti: It's an individual assessment. So that depends on what it looks like. It's like I say, if you have work and access rights and these parts, then we can't make those demands. But it is also true that ... As I said, the social service should always support people in the long term to cope with their situation. And these are people who are judged to be able to handle their situation.

Reporter: But in practice, does it then become a compulsion to move?

Eva Saletti: No, you can't force anyone. If someone who has not done, and is suffering and in need, then we must support them. We always have an ultimate responsibility in this matter.

At the hostel in Västra Frölunda, the Alo family lives, just over a month after our first visit.

Reporter: So how have you been since I last saw you?

Farida: We've been the same, nothing has changed

They go on housing coaching at the social services and say that they are looking for lots of apartments every week.

Seed: Till now we didn't get a positive answer.

Reporter: Nothing?

Seed: Till now no.

Reporter: Are you thinking about moving somewhere else?

Seed: At the moment we don't have a place to move.

Reporter: No I was thinking, to some other city. Are you considering those things?

Seed: Maybe I'm not so sure. It depends on availability

Seed: The other problem not to shift to other place, now that the kids are starting, in the middle of the school. Especially my oldest son, he is not accepting the changes. It's difficult for him. He is a little bit ..

Farida: We've moved so much. It has effects on him. He cannot feel stability.

Reporter: But what about the apartment search then?

Mohammed: I have to wait for the queue at Boplats.

Mohammed and his son also stay at the hostel.

Saad: For the holidays, we don't have a place to go. We'll be here. We will take the kids somewhere, in those centers where some activities.

Seed: Normally we are in Syria. The Muslims and Christians celebrate.

Fareeda: We celebrate. More than Sweden. You can't believe it.

Seed: Yeah and the Christmas time, nothing now the war time, but before the firework.

Fareeda: You wouldn't believe.

It is only a few days left for Christmas Eve and tonight the relief organization organizes a Christmas celebration for the residents here.

When this report is aired, the families have been staying at the hostel for four and a half months each. For the three-child family, the social service has paid SEK 145,000 for the room. For Mohammed and his son, it has cost about 70,000.

Marcus Knutagård: The social services do not have the tools to build their own housing, but it is therefore important again that it becomes a municipal or national concern. You cannot keep it as a social service issue, that the housing problem can be solved there, but it is really important that it is a housing policy issue, housing supply issue. But at the moment, it is the social service that is allowed to receive the people who cannot do it on their own.

Reporter: So it's a lot about sending a signal maybe then?

Marcus Knutagård: Yes, the disadvantage is that the signal was sent at the same time as you might be closing the door for many groups who need help, perhaps with a strategy that risks causing families with children to be squeezed in situations that will be directly dangerous for children and for the household in general.

It is mid-January 2020. Stefan and the children have just returned to the hostel. Since we last met them, they have lived in two different secondary contracts. In one apartment they were allowed to stay for two weeks, the other one month. But now they are back.

Stefan: Today I have been and sought emergency housing assistance again. I have searched for as many apartments, housing rooms as possible.

While the family has been homeless, Stefan has been denied a couple of occasions when he sought money for the hostel. The social services do not think that he has done everything he can to solve his situation himself. In the end, he always got help with a roof over his head.

Reporter: Has it been difficult to understand how it works, what you can and can't do, and the like?

Stefan: Yeah. Because there is different message each time. That's how it has been. We have had three different reasons why I cannot receive emergency assistance. In the beginning it was that I was not looking for enough jobs, or enough housing. That I did not take the opportunity to move 40 miles. If only I say then, I would have been able to move somewhere else, out of town. But I can't.

Reporter: But it has become so complicated with the emergency assistance that you have been rejected several times. Do you feel you have any debt in it yourself?

Stefan: To some extent maybe ... Yes. The. No

Reporter: Would you have been able to do something different? S: No, it's actually outside my power. A little out of this. When we moved, I had no money. I was completely scratched into my account.

Stefan has started working, but the salary is not enough to pay rent at the hostel. And from the social services he has been given a new work plan, which states everything he has to do to keep the aid.

Reporter: Daily search for 20 homes within ten miles radius from Gothenburg, even in small towns. Will you do it?

Stefan: Yeah. There is just about anything on the block, so there are ten homes. Or 20 homes.

Reporter: By day.

Stefan.Well, I have to do that. We must have a home.

Reporter. It is true, just as you write in any decision here that if you do not have mental illness or abuse then you are not the target group. But if you had, you would have been able to get help with housing

Stefan: Yes, it is.

Reporter: What do you think about it then?

Stefan: If I have to live like this for a month or so, I will probably belong to that category, I think, with mental illness. That's how it feels today. Because it is terribly stressful not to know what to do tomorrow, it feels a bit like.

Fact plate: Stefan's family has now moved to one where they are allowed to live for three months.

Facts plate: The social service in the Örgryte-Härlanda district does not want to comment on Stefan's situation, since one does not go into individual cases. But it is written that a work plan is generally drawn up in dialogue and consensus with the individual. The business follows the case law and the City of Gothenburg's common guidelines, which support people to own housing.