Start of the pilot project on promoting the protection of the right to housing-homelessness in the context of evictions
FEANTSA experts in association with the School of Law, NUI Galway and Human European Consultancy will lead a major EU-funded research project on evictions across the 28 European Union (EU) Member States.
Over the next two years, with a budget of €1 million, the research will investigate the national legal frameworks and extent of evictions across Europe. It will examine evictions from mortgaged, rental and other properties, with a focus on the right to housing within the context of national and EU law. The core research team, which includes FEANTSA experts Freek Spinnewin, Dr. Volker Busch-Geertsema and Dr. Lars Benjaminsen, is joined by Professor Sergio Nasare-Aznar of University Roviri I Virgili, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, with Dr. Padraic Kenna as Project Director. A network of national experts on housing law and policy across all EU Member States will collate national and local data, as well as legal materials, for the project’s report to the European Commission.
The research will also identify effective early intervention and preventative measures, as well as creating a profile of evicted households, risk factors and risk groups. Patterns of evictions across all EU Member States will be analysed in the context of diverse structural factors, the economic crisis, welfare systems, legal practices and protections, and other factors. Measures which prevent homelessness within all EU Member States remain a priority for the European Commission. This project will collate and evaluate the most cost-effective measures which can be advanced to mitigate evictions across the EU. The core research team will prepare reports and recommendations for the European Commission on best practice models, to monitor, alleviate and prevent evictions, within the framework of national and EU law and policy.
The project was awarded following a competitive tendering process by the European Commission. Funded by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Europe 2020: Social Policies, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, this pilot project supports the EU poverty reduction and active inclusion strategy through combatting homelessness, reducing housing vulnerability and promoting access to quality and efficient social services as underpinned by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package.
For more information contact: Dr Padraic Kenna at the School of Law, NUI Galway
