Housing and homelessness

Access to adequate and affordable housing should be a fundamental right for all people. Yet across Europe we are facing a housing crisis in cities, which creates new forms of inequality and contributes to the most extreme form of poverty: homelessness. Local authorities play a central role in delivering housing support. Cities have long been at the forefront of improving access to adequate and affordable housing. Many cities are committed to ensuring long-term investment in housing and integrated measures to end homelessness, as well as experimenting with new housing models to promote social cohesion and social mix through urban planning. However, current regulations on the housing market and the digital platform economy aggravate housing exclusion in our cities, leading to gentrification. Cities look to the EU to invest and increase the stock of public social housing, hold responsible private housing developers and encourage innovation with new forms of housing (co-housing) in public-private partnership. Read more:

• Eurocities Social Europe position
• Eurocities report on housing and homelessness