25th November 2013: Joint Letter - Call for EU Action Plan on Homelessness as Follow-Up to SIP

6 European organisations active in the fight against homelessness (FEANTSA, Eurodiaconia, Mental Health Europe, Habitat for Humanity: Europe, Middle East and Africa, SMES Europa and INSP) sent a joint letter to László Andor, Commissioner responsible for employment, social affairs and inclusion, in advance of the Annual Convention of the European Platform Against Poverty, highlighting the urgent need for concrete action at EU level to follow up on the Social Investment Package in the area of homelessness.

November 2013 - Time for the EU to Act on Homelessness! Calls for Concrete Policy Coordination and Support on Homelessness Can No Longer Be Ignored

In the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package, there is increasing pressure from a range of EU institutions and stakeholders to develop an action plan or strategy to support better progress on tackling homelessness.

Homelessness is an urgent problem that we cannot tolerate in the European Union. It is rapidly increasing in virtually all EU Member States. The demand for support from the EU, which is about knowledge and expertise as much as it is about money, comes from public authorities, EU institutions and NGOs. An EU action plan on homelessness is necessary to honour these calls for support.

There are still 7 years to go until the EU 2020 strategy reaches its term. A lot is still possible in that time. Let’s not waste the opportunity!

December 2011 - FEANTSA Response to the European Commission FEANTSA supports many of the European Commission’s proposals and highlights the need to combine both ESF (for training and employability) and the ERDF (for service infrastructure) when setting up projects targeting the homeless population.

FEANTSA and Other NGOs Call for a Homelessness Strategy In a letter to László Andor, Commissioner Responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and Koos Richelle, EuropeAid Director General, FEANTSA and other social NGOs called for an EU homelessness strategy, in line with demands from EU institutions such as the European Parliament.

Call for an EU Homelessness StrategyFEANTSA response to the Europe 2020 strategy

FEANTSA believes that the Europe 2020 proposal to launch a European Platform against Poverty, which will ‘transform the open method of coordination on social exclusion and social protection’ where national authorities will need to ‘define and implement measures addressing the specific circumstances of groups at particular risk such as…the homeless’ paves the way for a clear EU framework to monitor national strategies to tackle homelessness, the most extreme form of poverty and social exclusion.