1. Homelessness in Europe: Added value of European Cooperation
Contribution Freek Spinnewijn
EBET Kongress
25/09/ Köln

2. Homelessness : dire reality in EU
Homelessness increasing in all EU Member States
4 million per year
Rapid
Also in countries with robust welfare systems
Youth & families
Impact flaws of migration policy
Not captured by general anti-poverty trends
Better captured by housing market trends
Except Finland
“Functional zero”
Key to success:
Housing First
Simplification, pragmatism, stakeholder consensus

5. Increasingly strong evidence-base
Production & availability of knowledge UP
Homeless profiles
Pathways in and out
What (does not) work(s)
Some interesting recent insights
Not ”everybody” is vulnerable to homelessness (UK)
Chronic pain most urgent health problems according to homeless (UK)
Half of young homeless come from “functional” families (DK)
Complexity and chronicity of homelessness not linked (DK)
Excess morbidity among homeless also caused by mere shelter use (DK)
Devastating impact of sleep deprivation on reintegration process (FR)
Increasing use of health care precedes homelessness (FR & UK)
Price of housing & rent levels causes homelessness (USA)
Small minority is chronically homeless (USA)
1 out of 3 young homeless is LGBTQ (CAN)
Life expectancy decreases among chronic homeless when housed (NL) …

6. Housing First works What is Housing First? Process rather than outcome
Decoupling housing & services
Chronic/complex homelessness
Evidence
Large experiments
Canada, France
Clear
Housing retention
Ontological security
Positive indications
Health including addiction but…
Costs
Scaling is happening – slowly
Finland, Denmark, Belgium, UK, France…
Has Germany “missed the train”
“Managing rather than solving”

7. Policies changing Homeless strategies
Homeless distinct problem in need of “separate” policy
50% EU member states
“New” focus
Housing First /led
Targeted prevention
Cost-efficiency
Finland!
But
Also criminalisation
Hungary!
Switch “Staircase model” – “Housing First”
Unavoidable process
Quantity shelter
Quality shelter
Profile
Integration process
Sector with corporatist reflex
Too expensive
France!

8. FEANTSA Only European NGO working exclusively on homelessness
Membership organisation
Shelter & other services & (increasingly) housing
Almost all EU member states
130
Large multi-stakeholder network
Core funding from EU
But (still…) independent & free

9. FEANTSA activities Research Journal, Themed research conference
Comms
Newsletters, website, social media
Exchange
Themed clusters, policy conference, Housing First Hub, Housing Solutions Platform
Monitoring
Annual Update of housing exclusion in Europe
Lobbying
EU, UN, CoE, OECD, WHO
National level
Litigation
Human Rights

10. ICESCR Session 9/2018

11. Relevance of the EU
Money
Monitoring
Law
Policy Guidance

12. Money Structural Funds Now Future SRSS
ESF, ERDF, FEAD, AMIF
Future
InvestEU
SRSS
EU support for structural reform – also in social areas including homelessness
Pooling of demands
EU Programmes
Calls
Health, Social Inclusion, Rights,…

13. Monitoring Power of comparison Eurostat Semester Social Rights Pillar
Housing Data
Retrospective homeless data soon
Semester
Social Rights Pillar
EU social policy framework for future
SPC Peer reviews …
Also
UNECE & OECD

14. 50.3% of poor in housing cost overburden in Germany
Only Greece, Denmark and Bulgaria are worse.
13% increase of gap between poor & non-poor in housing cost-overburden btw
Germany in the top 6 worst performers on housing inequality (mostly East European)
Germans (5,9%) 5 x less likely to be in overcrowding than non-EU migrants (26,8%)
6th worst performer after Belgium, Ireland, Luxemburg, Austria, France

15. Law Consumer protection Prevention of eviction / “fair terms“
Bank account for homeless
Free movement
Access to social assistance
Unclarity!
Migration
Right to shelter for asylum seekers
Gender
Istanbul Convention

16. Policy Guidance Youth Guarantee Disability Strategy CRPD
Child poverty/Rights Strategy
Roma Framework …

17. Social Europe “in crisis”
Commission lost its capacity to propose …
Hides behind “subsidiarity”
Big on Big – Small on Small “killed” sense of initiative of civil service
Keep status quo is maximum possible
See MFF / Future of EU debate
European Parliament lost its capacity to follow up ...
Plenty of good proposals but no political pressure on EC to follow up
See Written Questions
Council lost its capacity to decide …
Too divided
See Migration
BUT should not make us blind for opportunities ;

18. Thank you for listening Questions??? Comments!!!! Criticism ###
@freekspinnewijn