74 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 41 | 2023 Recommendations for possible solutions While Denmark has taken steps since the 2000s to reduce homelessness, most successfully in reducing the amount of youth affected, policy gaps remain, leaving the three other main homeless populations vulnerable: those with substance abuse issues or mental illness and migrants. New policies or a revisal of current bans on setting up camp or begging on public streets needs to be made with a focus not only on the general population but also on improving human rights and supporting the homeless people, often migrants, affected by controversially punitive policies. To better support those with substance abuse problems, a program like the Housing First initiative can create specialized affordable housing for this specific group. A designated environment could provide affordable shelter as well as a community of similar people to lean on throughout the rehab process, providing positive-impact support groups to reduce isolation and to practice coping strategies with other people. High-impact nonprofit groups like the Oak Foundation and Alcoholics Anonymous within Denmark and Europe should be included in redesigning big initiatives like Housing First to ensure effective care for substance abuse. Within a focused rehab housing center or apartment complex, social workers could also better track and support individuals and, importantly, maintain initiatives for relapse redemption. Upwards of 40% to 60% of participants relapse after rehabilitation, and the previously homeless could easily fall back into that cycle, highlighting the need for close communication not only with those in specialized rehab housing centers but also afterwards. Instead of merely discharging patients upon treatment conclusion, a robust homelessness policy in Denmark would include various levels of check-ins where social workers visit past patients to safeguard their long-term stability. To better target those with mental illness, at a national level Denmark needs to expand funding for psychiatric facilities. Current law limits how many patients each public psychiatrist can treat. Rather than adding funding to this health-care sector, the government has addressed this shortage via online therapy and psychiatric services: solutions that do not reach the homeless. If Denmark cannot rebudget to increase mental health funding, specifically treatment in shelters, an alternative one-time cost could be investing in adding more technology within shelters to allow the homeless population to utilize online resources. This scenario requires extra funding for internet and Wi-Fi, yet less than expanding in-person treatment facilities. With the second-highest GDP of the Nordic countries, Denmark has the ability to allocate more funding to homeless prevention strategies (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2021). Finland, with a lower GDP than Denmark, has the second-lowest homeless population of the Nordic countries and spent an average of €43M more per year than Denmark on funding homeless programs from 2008 to 2015 (Allen et al., 2020). Denmark has the means to distribute adequate funding to fill these gaps and help its homeless population. Reducing barriers to residence and work permits is necessary to help the migrant homeless population. Denmark could establish preliminary employment positions that migrants could hold to generate some minimum income during the four- to six-month waiting period. Denmark could increase the quantity of low-skilled jobs within the labor market or provide extra help services (i.e., language translators) within immigration centers, reserving some of those for migrants waiting to receive working papers and permanent job offers. Migrants would then contribute to Denmark’s economy and labor market, while slowly reducing the strain on shelters and other resources as they begin to build their lives. Denmark’s homeless population continues to struggle as there are limited resources to help this population. If Denmark rebudgets its national spending to better target and help these ~6000 people, Demark could patch up the holes in the current welfare system. Not doing so prolongs a problem that belies the nation’s otherwise generally positive and well-deserved social welfare reputation. References Allen, M., Benjaminsen, L., O’Sullivan, E., & Pleace, N. (2020). Trends in homelessness in Denmark, Finland and Ireland. In Ending homelessness? The contrasting experiences of Ireland, Denmark and Finland. Bristol University Press; 2020. p. 73–102. Asmussen, K. S., & Maini-Thorsen, A. (2021, November 15). Learning from past experience: New Danish homelessness strategy targets structures that prevent Housing First. Feantsa.org. Bendixen, M. (2021, August 13). Denmark: National court rules against human rights judgement in migrant begging case. European Website on Integration, European Commission. Benjaminsen, L. (2018). Housing First in Denmark: An analysis of the coverage rate among homeless people and types of shelter users. Social Inclusion, 6(3), 327–336. Benjaminsen, L., & Andrade, S. B. (2015). Testing a typology of homelessness across welfare regimes: Shelter use in Denmark and the USA. Housing Studies, 30(6), 858–876. Benjaminsen, L., & Dyb, E. (2008). The effectiveness of
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