EU institutions, relevant ministers and civil society signed, on Monday 21 June at a high-level conference in Lisbon, the Lisbon Declaration to launch the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness.
The declaration, which is foreseen in the Action Plan on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (see EUROPE 12716/3) and in the work programme of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12679/26), sets out a series of principles and objectives.
The signatories commit that no one will sleep rough for lack of “accessible, safe and appropriate” emergency accommodation and no one will live in emergency accommodations longer than is required for successful move-on to a permanent housing solution.
They argue that no one should be discharged from any institution (e.g. prison, hospital, care facility) without an offer of “appropriate” housing. They stress the importance of avoiding evictions. If so, the person should have assistance in finding a housing solution. Finally, the declaration prohibits discrimination on the basis of homelessness status.
Thus, the platform aims to promote the exchange between policy makers and field staff, also to better exploit European funding opportunities. The aim is also to strengthen evidence and monitoring of homelessness. The platform is also setting up a European Prize to disseminate and promote good practices towards ending homelessness. Finally, the signatories of the declaration agree to meet in 2030 to review the progress made in ending homelessness.
The European Commission is asked, among other things, to support monitoring of homelessness, through the ‘European Semester’ process. The Social Protection Committee (SPS) will provide quantitative and qualitative assessments of progress made in this respect.
Civil society demanding
On Friday 18 June, several European organisations involved in this fight (FEANTSA, Housing Europe, IUT and the Fondation Abbé Pierre) issued a joint declaration to fight evictions in order to limit homelessness. According to the organisations, the pandemic has threatened many vulnerable people with losing their homes when the moratorium on evictions is lifted. They also call for additional measures, including debt relief for vulnerable families.
Risk of empty promises
The day before, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing and the Regional Representative for Europe of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a warning to Member States in an op-ed published in the Belgian daily La Libre.
In their view, there is a risk that these commitments will remain a dead letter without a reliable and disaggregated database (by income, gender, ethnicity, age, migratory status, etc.). They called for an end to the criminalisation of homelessness and for the recognition of the right to housing as a fundamental right.
To consult the platform’s statement: https://bit.ly/3xBp7xk (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)