FEANTSA and the Fondation Abbé Pierre recently launched the Fifth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe 2020.
According to this report, some 700,000 people face homelessness every night in the European Union, representing a 70% increase in ten years. However, during the recent health crisis, this number fell sharply thanks to the emergency measures to provide shelter for the most vulnerable among us taken by all European countries. We have now seen that it is possible to end homelessness if we really want to when we have the means to do so! In this Fifth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe, the Foundation Abbé Pierre and FEANTSA have once again joined forces and shown that by mobilising less than 3% of the subsidies provided for in the Post-COVID Recovery Plan budget, the European Union and Member States are capable of immediately rehousing all homeless people across Europe in dignified conditions for an entire year. In addition to fighting tirelessly against homelessness, both organisations have identified the key elements of a dignified and sustainable housing policy for all those facing housing exclusion or forced into homelessness due to housing costs and/or squalid living conditions, with housing inequality between poor and non-poor households having increased over the last ten years.
This year's report focuses on asylum seekers, who are over-represented among the homeless and whose fundamental rights, in particular access to dignified reception and accommodation conditions, are called into question at every stage of the asylum process.
