Tallinn

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Tallinn joined the Eurocities campaign InclusiveCities4All in March 2021, when Deputy Mayor Betina Beškina signed a pledge to principle 19 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, highlighting the city’s commitment to ensure the right to housing, including housing assistance for the homeless.

The city places a high priority on fostering independent living and preventing social exclusion as part of its Tallinn Development Strategy 2035. As such, the city aims to ensure everybody has a living space.

To achieve this, Tallinn has put in place a three-step ‘re-socialisation’ housing system: 1) shelters, 2) social housing units, and 3) dormitories with micro apartments. The system combines high-quality municipal accommodation with social services to support the homeless with tailored assistance to equip them to live independently as soon as possible, including renting a flat on private housing market.

Tallinn has already taken action in 2016-2020 to:

• invest more than €15 million in building new and renovating existing social housing;
• invest €50 million in subsidising the rental costs in municipal and social housing compared to the private housing market prices;
• provide social support and assistance to people in need who wish to rent on the private housing market.

Tallinn is committed to do more and plans to contribute at least €63 million in 2021-2025 to improve the housing support and assistance for the homeless by:

• further integrating social services with municipal and social housing support to better address the individual needs of specific target groups;
• establishing new social housing tailored to specific needs of different target groups, including setting up 40 social housing units for people with alcohol addiction, and assisted living units for other people in need (26 million EUR);
• renovating existing social housing (3 million EUR);
• subsidising rental costs in municipal housing (10 million EUR annually);
• supporting new and existing homeless shelters and social housing units (4 million EUR annually).

Tallinn’s Deputy Mayor Betina Beškina said: “For the city of Tallinn, ensuring a living space is a key priority.  We offer high-quality municipal accommodation with social services where necessary for all target groups, taking into account their special social needs”.