Brussels, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 16 January, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to develop a strategy for the homeless, which would come to the support of member states in the fight against what is “a violation of human dignity and human rights”. At the same time, by adopting an amendment in extremis, MEPs condemned the practice of criminalising homelessness. Hungary offers the most recent example of this.
The resolution adopted by the Parliament in plenary in Strasbourg - by 349 votes for, 45 against and 17 abstentions - is based on the key principle that “housing is a basic human need”. Guaranteeing it is certainly a national responsibility but the Parliament urges the Commission to put forward a European strategy. The Parliament states that such a strategy should include the following themes: - access to housing as a priority; - analysis of the issue of “cross-border homelessness”; - the quality of homelessness services offered; - the prevention of homelessness; - the situation of youth homelessness. In addition, the member states are asked to strengthen their cooperation and the Council of the EU is asked “to consider introducing a recommendation on a guarantee to ensure that nobody in the EU is forced to sleep rough because of a lack of (emergency) services”.
Hailing the result of the vote, vice-president of the Parliament's intergroup on extreme poverty and human rights, Jürgen Klute (GUE/NGL, Germany), stated in a press release that the first challenge is the lack of affordable and appropriate housing in many member states. “This is of great concern. As the numbers of homeless people increase there can be little hope of the situation improving while rents remain prohibitively high and demand significantly outstrips supply”, he said. (JK/transl.fl)