"Cities’ strategies against homelessness" offers an analytical framework to facilitate the comparison of the effectiveness of the measures deployed to resolve homelessness. The working group has compared the cities of Copenhagen, Genoa, Glasgow, Helsinki, Newcastle, Oslo, Riga, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Utrecht, Vienna and Warsaw on their approach to tackle homelessness.

Homelessness is a fact of urban life throughout the European Union. The homeless are among the socially most excluded. When the EU Social Inclusion Strategy, also known as the Lisbon strategy, was launched in the year 2000, it was agreed upon that the fight against social exclusion would have to be based on the open method of coordination (OMC), taking account of the principle of subsidiarity. This means in this field there is no binding EU-legislation: the responsibility for policy development and implementation first and foremost lies with the member states and their national, regional and local authorities.

The working group compared long-term social practice and policy for preventing homelessness, for intervening in cases of homelessness and for safeguarding accommodation once acquired. In order to understand the overall situation in a city, the spectrum of institutions, measures and provisions has been analyzed and compared with the situation in other cities. The dependencies and interrelations between these resources were also taken into account.

EUROCITIES is the network of major European cities. Founded in 1986, the network brings together the local governments of more than 120 large cities in over 30 European countries.

EUROCITIES provides a platform for its member cities to share knowledge and ideas, to exchange experiences, to analyse common problems and develop innovative solutions, through a wide range of Forums, Working Groups, Projects, activities and events.

The most important outcome of the WGH is the wide-ranging advantages of an “integrated chain“. The term “Integrated chain“ refers to a coordinated, integrated and strategic approach to homelessness in a city, that seeks to support people’s progress to the optimum level of independence and integration. Each homeless person in their respective situation of need should be granted access to this support system. At the same time the assistance given should bring the person or group of people (couples, families) into a situation of normal housing provision and thus stabilize them. The “Integrated chain” depends on the specific local situation, yet many of the realised individual measures of all participating cities are very similar.

The working group found a close interrelation between the accompanying framework conditions and the need for emergency support. A well-developed system of preventive and integrative services will most likely avoid the manifestation of homelessness for many individuals. In addition to the impact of specific local conditions the working group identified common aspects of homelessness which should be tackled in a focussed and concerted manner: 

EUROCITIES working group on Homelessness
Gerhard Eitel (Coordinator of the WGH), tel. +43 664 5453586

01/06/2006

EUROCITIES Working Group on Homelessness (WGH)

research

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing policy

Homelessness