2023-09-05 18:39:58
At least 895,000 people are homeless in the European Union and the United Kingdom, according to an estimate published on Tuesday 5 September by the European Federation of Associations Working with Homeless People (Feantsa), a figure up from to 2019.
“This estimate – based on fragmentary data and which captures only the most visible forms of housing exclusion – attests to the inability of European countries to make housing a fundamental right”judges the report, co-written with the French Abbé Pierre Foundation.
To establish their figure, the authors studied the censuses of homeless people carried out in each country, when they exist.
By adding the counts of 13 countries whose data they judged to be sufficiently reliable and comparable with each other, they concluded that 0.174% of the European population lived on the streets or in emergency accommodation.
When compared to the total population of the EU and the UK, this percentage gives some 895,000 homeless people in all 28 countries.
This is almost 200,000 more than in 2019, the last year Feantsa made this calculation.
200,000 more than in 2019
“This calculation gives an approximate idea of the minimum extent of the phenomenon but does not constitute a method for establishing the real number of homeless and poorly housed people in Europe”warn the authors.
Among the countries studied, some good students have seen their number of homeless people decrease, such as Finland, which has invested heavily in the production of housing and applies the principle “Housing First”consisting of providing permanent housing to homeless people as soon as possible.
Austria, which also applies this principle, also saw the number of homeless people fall in 2020, the latest year available, but this may be due to exceptional measures taken during the pandemic, such as the suspension of rental evictions, warn authors.
“All Member States must urgently design and deploy national strategies to end homelessness”claims Feantsa, which also calls on the European Commission to strengthen its platform to combat homelessness.
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