Around 1.3 million people are currently homeless in Europe. The homelessness crisis is deepening due to increasing economic challenges, housing shortages, social exclusion, migration and other systemic issues. To address these pressing concerns, policymakers, social leaders, experts and financial actors will join forces in Strasbourg on 3 December to find human rights-based solutions at the Conference "Addressing Homelessness through Social Investment", co-organised by the Council of Europe and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).
"The Council of Europe's response to this challenge is necessarily a human rights-based one: people facing homelessness, especially the most vulnerable, have to be helped and not penalised. Be understood and not become victims of indifference or, worse, stereotypes." Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Gianluca Esposito, stated ahead of the conference. "The path forward involves urgent, coordinated efforts at both local and international levels to ensure that homelessness is reduced and eventually eliminated, making housing a right accessible to all."
The CEB Vice-Governor for Target Group Countries, Tomáš Boček, stressed that "CEB's social mandate emphasises social and affordable housing, including finding permanent housing solutions for the homeless. CEB's operations have shown that prioritising sustainable, long-term funding and adopting appropriate financing models is essential for the long-term success of housing-led solutions."
The conference, which is being livestreamed, is an important and timely opportunity to analyse current trends and identify appropriate housing strategies and social investments that can make a lasting difference. Local authorities and organisations working with the homeless will present practical avenues for action, including housing-led solutions, which understand housing as a fundamental right. Such approaches aim to provide immediate access to stable housing without the requirement to become 'housing ready', meaning that they do not have to meet certain criteria before being offered housing.
Special emphasis will be placed on analysing the experiences of actors working at the grassroots level in France, Germany and the Slovak Republic. The CEB, which provides financing, technical assistance and capacity building to project promoters and financial intermediaries across Europe, has just published a Discussion Paper looking at the financing-led solutions in two countries, France and Portugal, raising awareness on how actors in the sector can facilitate projects through adequate financing.
Among the experts and policymakers who will discuss the political framework and strategic approach are Aurora Floridia, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Rapporteur on Analysis and guidelines to guarantee the right to housing and to decent housing, Jimmy Moloney, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Rapporteur on Social Housing and Johannes Böhmer, Vice-Governor for Social Development Strategy (CEB).
Responses to homelessness will need to be formulated and implemented by states and other stakeholders based on standards and achievements of the Council of Europe and the European Social Charter that protects the right to housing and requires states to prevent and gradually eliminate homelessness, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and recommendations of other international bodies. This event is supported by the European Union under the InvestEU Advisory Hub.
