Landsbyggefonden (The National Building Foundation) allocated 890 mio DKK between 2015 and 2018 to vulnerable residential areas, earmarking it for social housing efforts and rent subsidies. The aim in doing so was to promote positive and safe development in the areas through a combination of preventive physical, social and crime prevention measures.

The Danish Centre for Social Science Research (VIVE) and the Danish Institute for Building Research at Aalborg University coordinated this evaluation report on the spending of these funds.

The report's key findings are as follows:

• Holistic plans strengthen education for children and young people. Children with one or two parents who have no education or are unemployed are unlikely to finish higher education. However, compared with children growing up in other areas, children from more vulnerable residential areas who are supported with a holistic plan tend to do far better.
• Children and young people with ethnic minority background are progressing most. Children and young people with a family migration background from the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey were found to be improving more significantly that children of other groups.
• Education reduces the risk of dropping out of the labour market. For young people with parents who have no education or are unemployed, taking an education clearly reduces their own risk of being unemployed.
• Collaboration between municipalities and social hosing companies can solve complex problems. Holistic plans, where employees from the local administration and social workers cooperate, is found to be an efficient solution when it comes to overcoming challenges facing vulnerable children and young people.

The results are based on qualitative questionnaires and interviews, as well as data from registers.