Housing ministers urge European Commission to start action on homelessness

At their meeting - a Belgian government initiative - on 10December, European Union housing ministers adopted a final communiqué that urges the European Commission to start work towards an EU Homelessness Strategy.

In the final communiqué, adopted in Brussels on 10December, housing ministers from across Europe called upon the European Commission to make sure that the fight against homelessness and housing exclusion finds a solid place on the European agenda.  They recommend that the Commission start developing a European Union (EU) strategy to fight homelessness and housing exclusion which gives priority to housing-led policies in response to homelessness.

Pointing to the European Parliament resolution on an EU Homelessness Strategy and the conclusions of this year’s European homelessness ministers’ round table, the housing ministers welcomed the attention the European Commission gives to the role of housing-led policies in the development of homelessness strategies in its Social Investment Package (SIP), but nevertheless note that the growing phenomena of exclusion and homelessness are still a real and urgent challenge. This challenge is exacerbated by the social consequences of the crisis which hinder national and local policies on homelessness.  The Ministers agree that it is essential to seize the opportunity to build a European strategy to deal with homelessness as a shared social challenge.

The call for further work towards an EU homelessness strategy supports recommendations from the 2013 European Annual Convention on Poverty and Social Exclusion that an EU expert committee should be appointed and tasked with developing a proposal for an EU homeless strategy.

The housing ministers’ call echoes demands from many EU bodies, such as the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO), for and EU Homelessness strategy or action plan. Such a strategy could support member states and other stakeholders in their efforts to combat homelessness through promoting transnational exchanges, training and research, monitoring progress and providing policy guidance, as well as financing social experimentation and facilitating access to the Structural Funds.

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