Response to interpellation 2025/26:332 on the 2026 Homelessness Report
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
I believe that the government takes homelessness seriously and has quadrupled the funding of the national homelessness strategy 1. I maintain that the government has taken measures against structural homelessness through legislative changes, raised housing cost limits for families with children, and state grants for those affected by violence 1. I emphasize that the new Social Services Act is important for early interventions 2 and that preventive work is now mandatory 3. I believe that the government has worked proactively by increasing the housing allowance, lowering food VAT and fuel costs, and implementing tax cuts 3. I see the referral to the Council on Legislation regarding municipal rent guarantees as a response to socially sustainable housing supply 4. MP believes that a better holistic approach is needed in the strategy, which includes housing supply and economic components 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Malte Tängmark Roos has asked me whether I and the government will work to ensure that the next national strategy against homelessness also addresses the structural causes behind homelessness, and what concrete measures I consider to be the most important to work further on to combat the structural causes of homelessness in Sweden.
The Government takes the occurrence of homelessness and the extensive vulnerability that the lack of a home of one's own can entail seriously. Homelessness is a complex and multifaceted problem that requires long-term and sustained work. The Government has therefore extended and strengthened the funding of the national homelessness strategy in several stages. The initiative now amounts to 150 million kronor per year 2026–2031, which is almost a fourfold increase since 2022.
The Government is keen that the extended and strengthened homelessness strategy is accurate. Therefore, Socialstyrelsen has been tasked with following up on the current strategy and submitting proposals for further measures in the area (S2025/01181). The assignment shall be reported by March 2, 2026, at the latest. The report will form the basis for the continued work in the area, and I do not wish to precede the agency's report.
Within the framework of the homelessness strategy's fourth goal – to strengthen the social perspective in community planning – the National Board of Health and Welfare and the National Board of Housing published a joint methodological support on February 13 this year: Everyone needs a home. The purpose is to facilitate cooperation between social services and municipal community planning as well as to contribute to countering homelessness, exclusion from the housing market, and overcrowding.
The government has also, outside the framework of the national homelessness strategy, taken several measures that have an impact on structural homelessness.
In March 2025, amendments were introduced to the Act (2000:1383) on the municipalities' housing supply responsibility. The amendments mean, among other things, that the municipalities shall replace their guidelines for housing supply with action plans no later than before the end of the mandate period that begins after the 2026 election. In the action plans, the municipalities shall account for the need for additional housing, for example to counter homelessness. The amendments further mean that the municipalities shall take into account the need for coordination with other municipalities in the planning and implementation of measures, such as regarding the housing situation of economically weak households and homelessness. The amendments also clarify that municipal housing agencies can mediate housing through priority and reservations without it affecting their right to charge a search fee from applicants. For this reason, the government has tasked Boverket with informing about the expanded possibilities to mediate housing based on need, particularly through priority for permanent housing for persons affected by violence (LI2024/02396).
The government has also raised the housing cost limits for families with children within the housing allowance, so that the housing allowance is more closely linked to the actual housing costs. The upper housing cost limits for families with children were raised on 1 January 2026 by 1,500 kronor per month for families with one child and by 2,000 kronor for families with two or more children.
Furthermore, the government finances state grants to municipalities to strengthen the work of helping those exposed to violence to arrange permanent housing. This is important in this context because many women experiencing homelessness report that exposure to violence is an underlying cause of their situation.
Last week, the government also decided on the referral to the Council for Legislation regarding Municipal Rental Guarantees for a Socially Sustainable Housing Supply. In the referral to the Council for Legislation, it is proposed, among other things, that an authorization shall be introduced for the government to issue regulations on an obligation for municipalities to provide rental guarantees. In the long run, this proposal can, for example, counteract insecure housing conditions, exclusion from the housing market, evictions, and homelessness. The authorization is proposed to enter into force on July 1, 2026.
Malte Tängmark Roos (MP)
Madam Speaker! I thank Camilla Waltersson Grönvall for the opportunity to debate this extremely important issue regarding Stadsmissionen's homelessness report and how we, from the political side, can work so that no human being has to live in homelessness. I also perceive that the Minister for Social Services has a genuine burning interest in and commitment to the issue. Not least the new Social Services Act and the mandate to the National Board of Health and Welfare to investigate the causes of and possible solutions for child removals demonstrate this.
My question in the interpellation and the criticism I still have regarding the homelessness policy is more about the government's lack of a holistic approach to the issue. In the homelessness report, Sveriges Stadsmissioner have reviewed the national homelessness strategy and the government's work against homelessness. In the report, they state that the strategy has contributed to increased knowledge and strengthened cooperation and, furthermore, has resulted in an important breakthrough for the Housing First model, which is good. But it has not led to any decisive reduction in homelessness. Stadsmissionen also argues that last year, 2025, was a year characterized by a lack of a holistic view and a low level of ambition from the government's side.
A central flaw in the current strategy and in the government's work in large is that it primarily treats homelessness as a social problem and to a large extent ignores the structural causes of homelessness. The fact is that the main reason people become homeless in Sweden today is not social problems, such as substance abuse or the like, but the fact that there is a shortage of affordable housing in large parts of the country. Rents are high, economic vulnerability is widespread, and the housing market is far too segregated.
An example of this can be seen in the eviction statistics. According to figures from Kronofogden, the number of evictions has increased by 30 percent over three years, and the number of children being evicted is 50 percent more than they were five years ago. In addition to them, there are also all the families who choose to move before an eviction has been carried out and thus are not included in the statistics.
The most common cause of an eviction is not substance abuse, public order disturbances, or other social problems, but simply that people cannot afford to pay the rent. In that regard, the government has worsened the situation by, for example, abolishing the investment support for affordable rental apartments and lowering the housing allowance while rents have skyrocketed. The housing cost limit was indeed raised this year, which is very good, but before that, the supplementary allowance in the housing allowance was abolished, which provided more money in the wallet than the increase the government made afterwards. In total, people have therefore gone into the red.
The municipal rental guarantees, which Camilla Waltersson Grönvall mentions, are very good. But they arrive several years too late in relation to when the investigation was completed.
There is simply a lack of a holistic approach to the issue of homelessness. Very commendable measures are being taken, such as Housing First and for social services, for which the Minister should receive great praise. But at the same time, not enough is being done to address the shortage of affordable housing and people's difficulties in paying altogether too high rents.
Madam Speaker! The national strategy against homelessness expires this year. My hope is that the government, in its work to develop a new strategy, will include measures against both the housing shortage and economic vulnerability.
I understand that the Minister for Social Services does not want to anticipate the proposals that the National Board of Health and Welfare is to present in a week. However, I would still like the Minister to answer a bit more clearly on whether and, if so, how she thinks housing policy and the economic issues should be linked into the strategy moving forward.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Malte Tängmark Roos, for an important interpellation!
Homelessness and insecure housing conditions are something that truly creates insecurity, which in turn reinforces social difficulties and both physical and mental ill health. It is something that the government takes seriously.
It is at the same time a complex and difficult question; I am very aware that the member is familiar with that. It is therefore required that what is done must be both accurate and long-term. It is important that one in a vulnerable position does not need to worry that, for example, an election would result in sudden reversals.
The homelessness strategy that is currently in effect was running when we took office. It is always important to evaluate what has worked and what has not, so that one can strengthen where it has not worked as well. We would, of course, wish that it had had a much greater impact.
The government is very forward-looking regarding the homelessness strategy. This is seen, not least by the fact that in 2022 we invested a total of 30 million on this. And in the coming years, 150 million kronor will be invested. It shows that there is a genuine commitment and a will to meet these problems.
Normally, one might not point out a specific method. But Housing First, or Housing First as it is called internationally, has proven to be a very successful method. Parts of the EU are working intensively with it. Therefore, it was natural to point it out in this case.
There are municipalities in Sweden that are working very forward-looking and successfully with this. The government wants to strengthen this, so that municipalities that have not come as far can learn from those municipalities that have. Helsingborg can be mentioned as one of the first municipalities that began working with this and which has been successful in its work with the housing situation. I have been on study visits in Helsingborg and can state that when one sees the whole picture around a person, it has a completely different effect.
This is, as has been said, a very complex issue, and furthermore, individuals' situations also look different. Therefore, it is important that a holistic approach is taken regarding this.
I am therefore pleased that the member mentions the new Social Services Act, which entered into force on July 1 last year. It is aimed at being able to provide early and preventive interventions. We often talk about children and young people in gang crime when we talk about it, but its purpose truly deserves to be highlighted here, namely to work early with all people who in different ways are in need of receiving early and preventive support.
We are now allocating resources to it, and the social services will have the opportunity to work with interventions without being stuck in front of a computer screen with long investigations. That means one can work more actively towards the people who need it the most. Therefore, the new Social Services Act will become an important part of the forward-looking work, also linked to homelessness.
Malte Tängmark Roos (MP)
Madam Speaker! I would like to once again thank the Minister for Social Services.
I can only agree with much of what the Minister says. Bostad först is a fantastic program that works well internationally and also in many places in Sweden. To continue working with and developing that system is very good.
Just as I said in my first speech, I believe that the Social Services Act is also very important. The Minister should receive a great accolade for it.
I do not quite perceive that I have received an answer on how the minister wants to include housing policy and the safety nets in the homelessness policy going forward. During this parliamentary term, very few initiatives have come from the government to increase the construction of affordable housing. They even removed the investment support. And the safety nets, which largely exist for exactly this group of people, the government has allowed to be eroded quite significantly during this parliamentary term.
Looking ahead, we see the government's announced subsidy reform. It is criticized unanimously by civil society, researchers, and experts because it risks increasing poverty and vulnerability, among other things through subsidy caps and qualification requirements for inclusion in the welfare system. It would likely mean that many more families would find it very difficult to pay the rent and risk eviction and homelessness.
It is clear that the government has a fantastic grip – I must say – on certain parts of the homelessness policy, such as the social part. But one fails to see how other parts of the policy affect it.
For us, it is obvious that if we as a society are to be able to ensure that no one has to live in homelessness, the state needs to take a much greater responsibility for both socially sustainable housing supply throughout the country and people's ability to pay. We need to raise, index, and reform the housing allowance so that it covers a larger part of the rental cost and so that more people can benefit from it. It is actually so bad that the income limit has not been raised since 1997. This means that it has gone from 10 percent of households being entitled to housing allowance to 3 percent now having it. It is a major reason why many more households have difficulty paying their rent.
The state also needs to take greater responsibility for housing construction by reintroducing the investment support for the construction of affordable rental apartments and by, among other things, introducing favorable loans.
If we go back to the social aspect, the municipalities' and social services' preventive work must become mandatory. There are many who work that way and who do it very well, but it is not mandatory. One must get expanded opportunities to provide housing solutions for families with children who are homeless or who risk being evicted, even when the reason for it is not social issues.
Madam Speaker! I am very much looking forward to seeing what proposals the National Board of Health and Welfare will present on March 2. I perceive that I will not hear any concrete proposals from the Minister here and now, before these are in place. But I wonder if the Minister can at least say clearly and distinctly whether she considers socially sustainable housing supply and functioning safety systems should be central parts of the next national strategy against homelessness. Even if the Minister perhaps does not want to go into the concrete measures just yet, it would be interesting to hear if the Minister agrees that those parts must be included in the next strategy.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I am, of course, pleased whenever I receive an interpellation on this important area. This time, the timing was affected, even though there are naturally all possibilities for more interpellation debates on the theme. But when there are only a few days left until Socialstyrelsen is to present its assignment and its proposals, it becomes impossible for me, in my capacity as minister, to anticipate that presentation, which I believe the member has full understanding for. It would, in any case, be highly inappropriate.
I await the proposals that will come. And just like the member, I look forward very much to seeing what Socialstyrelsen will propose in this important area.
Preventive work is mandatory. One of the best things about the new Social Services Act is that the preventive parts no longer constitute optional work for the municipalities. There is actually a "shall" requirement linked to this legislation. One shall work preventively from various aspects when it concerns people in vulnerable situations. Parts of what the member is requesting are therefore already established by this law.
When it comes to affordable housing, the structure of the housing market, rental apartments and so on, I would kindly suggest that the member interpellates the minister who is responsible for those issues. The homelessness strategy is my total responsibility, but the parts that the member specifically raises are another minister's responsibility.
The National Board of Health and Welfare will, as mentioned, submit its proposals linked to the whole on March 2. We will, of course, take those proposals further.
There is much that needs to be done to help people in vulnerable situations. The government has worked very proactively. It is not just about the fact that we have increased the housing allowance for the first time in 30 years – I presented the figures for this. It is also about, for example, lowered food VAT and lowered fuel costs. The latter benefits in particular those who live outside the metropolitan areas. What a difference it makes when one can afford to drive one's child to an extracurricular activity or something else!
The best support for children in vulnerable situations is that they get to see their parents go to a job and see how they grow and thrive when they can support themselves and their family. This is the most important part. I have, for example, closely studied the situation in Hackney, where four generations of unemployment have eroded quite a bit of people's self-esteem, self-confidence, and belief that they will be able to pull themselves up out of their difficult situation.
This government wants to see support that gives all people the right conditions to be able to work for their own livelihood. What we are now doing in a number of different areas are, for example, reinforcements for the most vulnerable families with children and tax cuts that primarily go to low- and middle-income earners. It is about being able to support oneself.
Malte Tängmark Roos (MP)
Madam Speaker! I thank Camilla Waltersson Grönvall for the debate. Yes, the timing was obviously a bit unfortunate. I submitted my interpellation after the report was released. But I will, of course, return when the Socialstyrelsen's proposal is on the table.
I do not, however, think it is reasonable that I should direct all my questions to the other ministers. Regarding these specific questions, it is not necessarily so much about what the government has done in the area, but rather about what vision for the future one has.
Something that has been requested very much, primarily by Stadsmissionen but also by many others, is a better holistic approach in the national strategy against homelessness; one needs to incorporate the socially sustainable housing supply and the economic components. My question was more about how the government and the minister view connecting those components into the strategy moving forward. I am still interested in hearing if the minister sees a need to connect those policy areas more clearly than is the case today, even if one perhaps wants to wait for Socialstyrelsen's proposal in concrete terms.
Just as the Minister does, I think that work is extremely important. This government and the Green Party, however, have completely different views regarding whether people can be put into work or not through, for example, the subsidy reforms. It is a debate that I would very much like to have with the other ministers.
I think Camilla Waltersson Grönvall is a fantastic Minister for Social Services who is doing a very good job in this area. I hope for a bit more politics within the other areas as well moving forward. Thank you so very much, Camilla!
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you once again for this very pleasant interpellation debate! It is always extremely beneficial for politics when one shows that one can reason about these societal problems in a very good tone. I really want to emphasize that these are very complex problems, which I also said initially. These are issues that one cannot view from just one perspective.
One could say that the referral to the Council of Legislation, Municipal Rental Guarantees for a Socially Sustainable Housing Supply, is part of the answer to the member's question. A socially sustainable housing supply is incredibly important. It is also this that prompts the referral to the Council of Legislation.
Stadsmissionen receives both praise and criticism. That they also receive praise is something that one can honestly say without patting oneself on the back, which one should be careful of. For example, it is good that Stadsmissionen sees how Bostad has first achieved good impact. The concern is that it has not achieved that in more places, and our focus now is to ensure that it does. I am very pleased that Stadsmissionen has been and is a very good dialogue partner. That guarantees that the proposals will be carved out in such a way that they truly become accurate. But this is a complex issue.
Not least, I am passionate about all women who live in sheltered housing. It is important to meet them and hear about their concerns. What happens next? What can a long-term sustainable life with a concrete housing solution look like? There are so many parts to this that we must further develop to ensure that it works best for those who are absolutely most vulnerable.
I thank you for a good interpellation debate and look forward to continued dialogue on the issue. Many thanks!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.