The Country That Chose People Over Banks
Wild idea, I know.
In 2008, the world had a financial crisis.
You probably remember it, or at least the vibe of it — men in suits looking panicked on TV, banks collapsing, governments scrambling to throw money at the problem. Trillions, collectively, to bail out the institutions that had caused the mess in the first place.
It was a bit like watching someone burn your house down and then fundraising for their therapy.
While all of this was happening, Finland looked at the situation, looked at its 20,000 homeless people, and made a decision that was so sensible it bordered on radical:
What if we just... housed them?
The program is called Housing First, and it does exactly what it says. You give homeless people homes. Not shelters with seventeen conditions attached. Not “prove you’re employable, prove you’re sober, prove you deserve this.” Just — a home. First. Unconditionally.
The logic being that it’s quite difficult to sort your life out when you don’t have a roof over your head.
I know. Staggering stuff.
Here’s the part that gets me: this wasn’t some bleeding-heart left-wing revolution. The minister who championed it was centre-right. Because it turns out, letting people sleep on the street is actually quite expensive — emergency services, hospitals, policing. Housing people costs less.
So Finland did the compassionate thing, and it happened to also be the economical thing, and somehow this combination of decency and common sense remains the most underrated plot twist in modern European governance.
The result? Finland is now the only country in Europe where homelessness is down. Everywhere else, it’s gone up — 70% across the continent in the last decade. On any given night, 700,000 people sleep rough across Europe, all while nearly 40 million houses sit empty.
Finland decided things could be different.
Do you see the pattern?
The Germans decided burnout deserved a spa prescription before you started trying to decapitate colleagues with your keyboard. The Norwegians decided you’re allowed to walk through a forest without filing a request in triplicate. The Swedes decided a biscuit and fifteen minutes of human conversation are, in fact, a non-negotiable part of the workday.
And the Finns decided that in a wealthy country, nobody should sleep outside.
Not revolutionary. Just — a choice. The kind that requires deciding, first, that people matter more than the optics of fiscal conservatism.
While the rest of the world was writing cheques to banks, Finland was quietly writing a different kind of policy. The kind where the person on the street is the one who gets the cheque.
As Aristotle said: you are what you do repeatedly.
So what do our choices say — about who we are, and what we’ve decided is normal?
Inspired by the excellent Who Does It Best?–Housing episode on the excellent The Europeans podcast. I highly recommend listening, but if you prefer to read their excellent work, you can find them here on Substack at The Europeans. Did I mention they’re excellent?
A personal note
The shrewdest among you might have noticed this Substack has a new name. Love, European Style is nowThe Real Thing.
Here’s why: I kept sitting down to write about romance and ending up writing about things like the Finnish housing policy. Which told me something.
The thread running through everything I actually want to write about isn’t Europe, exactly, or love, exactly — it’s the gap between what we’re sold and how things really are. The difference between the brochure and the place. The relationship you were promised versus the one you’re actually in.
Somewhat against the job description for a romance writer, I know. But I’d like to make the case that these two things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can love without idealising. Live without bullshit. And find genuine inspiration in places that get things right, without pretending they get everything right.
The Real Thing, in other words.
If you’d like to know more about the change — including my entirely calm and not at all emotionally charged thoughts on the romance industry — you can read Why I Started The Real Thing (Or: My Grievances With the Romance Industry, Presented With Love).
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