What does it take to end homelessness? Tweaking or transforming systems

There is an aspirational movement across the Global North that seeks to end homelessness. No longer an issue to be managed, nation states and community actors outline headline objectives to end homelessness. Although there is much to be optimistic about, there is ambiguity about what these objectives mean and how they can be realized. This article examines these movements to identify how they are characterized and what value they represent. Engaging ideas about incremental versus radical change to address social problems, and the importance of framing social problems and their solutions, we argue that many of the ending homelessness objectives work at the micro and technocratic level that are unlikely to achieve the fundamental change required to end homelessness. Drawing on Finland’s success in measurably moving toward ending homelessness through increasing the supply of affordable housing and a comprehensive and universalist welfare state, we ask what countries elsewhere can do to progress the societal change required to end homelessness.