The current sectorial organisation of housing, social, health and employment services does not sufficiently support the early identification and prevention of homelessness, but causes homelessness to recur and slows down the transition to independent living. This project focuses in particular on the development and establishment of preventive homelessness work in municipalities. The project is part of the Government’s 2016 programme of measures to prevent homelessness (AUNE).The project implements a development process in which homelessness prevention strategies are developed and implemented in municipalities. At the same time, the structures of experience expertise and customer participation will be strengthened and new methods of homelessness will be tested. In practice, this means in cities:- gathering a multidisciplinary network of locally relevant actors for the prevention of homelessness- identifying paths and risk groups leading to homelessness, as well as co-customers — drawing up and implementing a preventive package of measures- Utilising expertise at different stages of the process. At national level, the project develops and disseminates homelessness practices in extensive network cooperation and promotes experimentation with innovative operating models. Co-development takes into account the principles of sustainable development by minimising travel and creating permanent online meeting and training practices. The operating model developed in the project is based on the Housing First principle, where housing security is seen as a prerequisite for starting the comprehensive rehabilitation process of the individual, strengthening inclusion and life management, and thus making progress towards working life. The main impact of the project as a whole in the short term is the reduction in homelessness. By allocating savings from this to preventive investments, the need for remedial homeless work will be reduced. Living in one long-term homeless will bring about EUR 15,000 a year in cost savings for society, so that homelessness prevention work brings overall significant economic and human benefits. Since the homeless are a large number of men, the services of the homeless have traditionally been built from this point of view. However, home as an environment is often seen in different ways in women’s and men’s experiences. In the project, the specificities of gender will be taken into account in the preparation of municipal prevention strategies, from the identification of target groups to the intervention level. The main implementation and co-ordinator of the project is the ARA Centre for the Financing and Development of Housing. Six municipalities are involved: Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Lahti. The project has partners with other municipalities, local and national associations and projects.