Finnish cities are zoning away poor and low-income residents on purpose, says a new Finnish study

Finnish cities are being modernized, renewed and developed with a heavy hand in order to attract rich and high-income residents to pay taxes. The study by Finnish housing organisation Y-säätiä found that the downside of this urban modernization, renewal and development is that affordable and cheap residential areas are demolished and the number of rental apartments is reduced, causing low-income and poor people to move out of the way of new, expensive residential areas. And even though this urban modernization, renewal and development seeks to improve living conditions, district vitality, district coziness and environmental friendliness, these benefits are not passed on to everyone when instead of rental apartments and suburbs only owner-occupied apartments are built, which the poor and low-income people cannot afford. In the long run, it can become a problem if we run out of cheap and affordable housing options.

The Y-säätiö, who conducted this study, recommends that apartment buildings should be taken care of, maintain and renovated regularly, instead of just letting them rot and decay to the point where demolition and replacement would be the only option.

https://yle.fi/a/74-20090028

What is Y-säätiö?

Y-Säätiö is a Finnish non-profit and non-politically committed foundation whose mission is to reduce homelessness by offering high-quality and affordable rental apartments. Y-Säätiö is the fourth largest landlord in Finland. ARA rental housing operator M2-Kodit is part of the Y-Säätiö group. Y-Säätiö's operation is based on the "housing first" principle. The principle is based on the idea that having a home to stay is a human right that belongs to everyone, and you don't have to earn it separately. Y-Säätiö acquires individual rental apartments and builds entire houses in order to provide reasonably priced rental apartments for homeless, poor and low-income people.