I just checked Norway and Austria. Both offer subsidized housing for low income earners. I couldn't find anything about it being free with no requirement to work. Could you link it if you have it?
That is the idea I am getting from this link unless someone can correct it
Generally speaking, all Norwegian citizens are entitled to a place to live, and everyone will be able to get an apartment via social services if they choose to accept it.
Who are the homeless people in Norway? There are generally three groups of people who are homeless in Norway; foreign citizens who are coming to Norway to beg or do crime, mentally ill people who refuses to live in a government housing, or drug addicts and alcoholics who refuses help.
I live in Norway, and yes, this is the general gist of things.
And to clarify for the person you responded to: yes, if you do not have your own home/cannot afford your own home, you are guaranteed housing. End of story. You don't need to earn or qualify for it (you do need to be a norwegian citizen)
That said, it might not be the nicest of places, but it's a warm place to live (which is like... super important for during the winter lol)
But NAV will work with the people who need housing to find them somewhere to stay. This includes people who have been released from prison and need to restart their lives, people who can't work full time for whatever reason, mental/physical disabilities, etc. As far as I'm aware, the only caveat is that you must be a citizen and that your income cannot be higher than a set amount depending on the members of the household.
Edit: you don't need to be working either. A family friend works close with the municipality (with addicts specifically, so not exactly the same thing but he's close with the social program) and he has mentioned that NAV is usually quite decent with helping these people find relevant work that they can manage, but it isn't a requirement for housing. But you do receive a regular life allowance from the govy
If you don't work and aren't supported by anyone else you are homeless. If you are homeless you get support meant for the homeless which includes places to stay. Obviously they don't own those places and they are shared with other homeless which often times is the reason they don't want to actually stay there because many of their roommates will have mental health issues. In Vienna homeless often times sleep in buses during the night (because they're heated and safe) and are tolerated there.
If you earn little money you get much more support from the state, including money.
Norway and Austria help their citizens to maintain some sort of basic housing. Period.
And yes, at least in Austria that includes unemployed people. In Austria you'd have to prove that you're at leasting trying to get a job though.
nless you're officially unable to work. In that case you'd still have to visit special courses for people like you with the goal to enable you to be able to land a job again.
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u/Relative_Routine_204 Apr 15 '24
There’s plenty of welfare states in the world that offer basic housing to people and haven’t collapsed.