Lived in Finland a decade now. There are drunks and drug addicts hanging around on the streets all night and in parks, but I have never once seen someone sleeping on cardboard, or in a sleeping bag on the street. Not once.
They are in the forest, not on the streets. Makeshift or real tent, sleeping bag. I've seen a bunch of this in Espoo and Helsinki, admittedly more in the 80s and 90s than later on. (Whether this development is due to my own situation or that of the homeless people, I don't know.)
Maybe. I mean there's a lot of forest here. But at that point isn't it more of a choice?
I tend to think of the homeless as sleeping in bags or on cardboard in cities, trying to get money for whatever it is they need. I really saw the true meaning of homelessness when I was in Austin.
