REPORT

Bridging Health and Homelessness: EU Public Health Initiatives as Drivers of Change

Download the report here

International Universal Healthcare Coverage Day - 12 December 2024

Today, the 12th of December 2024, marks the celebration of International Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. Aligned with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this day aims to raise global awareness and promote action toward achieving UHC by ensuring health is a fundamental right for all. Established in 2016, UHC Day commemorates the anniversary of the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of UHC in 2012, aimed at urging all countries to accelerate progress toward UHC as an essential priority for international development.

This year’s UHC Day theme, “It’s on the Government!”, underscores the crucial role of governments not only in ensuring that people are covered and can access healthcare services but also in guaranteeing that these services are of high quality and tailored to meet specific needs. This is particularly important in addressing the social determinants of health to reduce health inequalities. 

On this day, FEANTSA underscores the importance of addressing health inequalities and ensuring equitable access to healthcare as a fundamental human right for people experiencing homelessness, who often face significant barriers to accessing care, leading to poorer health outcomes, and perpetuating cycles of inequality. Aligning with this year’s theme, FEANTSA is releasing the new report on Bridging Health and Homelessness: EU Public Health Initiatives as Drivers of Change. 

In this paper, we explore how homelessness and the EU health initiatives intersect, identifying where the relevance lies for addressing housing as a social determinant of health, and how ending homelessness interconnects with the goal of EU to protect and improve the health of EU citizens, while leaving no one behind.  EU health policies are important in ensuring that all citizens have equal access to quality care, and they set out the direction for actions in public health. 

With over one million (1,287,000) people experiencing homelessness on any given night in Europe counted in 2024, this is a European matter, connecting two areas which can complement each other in driving change to end homelessness and improving public health for all.