Behind the gates of a former convent in Paris, an unusual community is taking shape. A young worker lives in the same residence as an elderly neighbour. A single mother raises her children a few floors away. In another wing of the building, Dominican catholic sisters pray not far from where visitors check into their accommodation for the weekend.
This unlikely mix is part of a model designed not only to provide housing, but also to rebuild social ties with people who might otherwise struggle to find a place in the city, including migrants and refugees.
Welcome to Maison Saint-Charles
Developed through a partnership between the non-profit Habitat et Humanisme and a religious congregation that historically managed the site, Maison Saint-Charles is located in a renovated building that now hosts forty-nine housing units.
The project also includes a fifteen-room hotel, professional spaces for meetings and co-working, as well as shared areas such as a garden and a renovated chapel. The hotel generates income for the sustainability of the project, while the shared spaces encourage interaction between residents and the surrounding neighbourhood.
It is essential that we capitalise on our collective experience and knowledge and that concrete approaches and solutions to migrant integration are shared, transposed, scaled up as needed in the coming period.
The idea behind the model is simple: when people from different backgrounds and generations live together and receive personalised support, social isolation can be reduced, and pathways to independence can emerge.
A broader approach to supported housing
Maison Saint-Charles is one example of the wider work of Habitat et Humanisme, dedicated to providing housing and support to people facing poverty, isolation and social exclusion.
The organisation mobilises thousands of volunteers, professionals and supporters, creating partnerships between public authorities, social services, private donors and investors.
Its innovative economic model combines public subsidies, private donations, corporate sponsorship, solidarity savings and impact investment. The organisation also works with supportive landlords while gradually building its own housing stock, a strategy that helps protect projects from volatile rental markets and rising prices.
Beyond providing accommodation, Habitat et Humanisme places strong emphasis on social support. Volunteers and staff assist residents with administrative procedures, employment opportunities, health services and everyday challenges, acting as a bridge between residents and public institutions.
Housing, a growing challenge across Europe
Projects like Maison Saint-Charles respond to a challenge that is becoming increasingly visible across European cities: housing prices.
For decades, communities across Europe have turned migration from a challenge into an opportunity for social and economic growth and strengthened social cohesion.
Across the EU, housing prices have increased by around 60 per cent in recent years, while rents have risen by approximately 20 per cent. As a result, around one million people across Europe are currently homeless.
“Many of these homeless people are migrants, either intra-EU migrants or non-nationals. So it’s quite important to address these problems,” says Gregorz Gajewski, from the Housing Task Force, European Commission.
Housing shortages impact people at all income levels, but they hit the most vulnerable groups, such as migrants and refugees, the hardest. Gajewski explains that when there isn’t enough affordable housing, even local residents struggle, which often leads to migrants being pushed out of social housing opportunities.
The scale of the housing gap is considerable. Each year, around 1.6 million housing units are built across the EU, yet an additional 650,000 homes annually will be required over the next decade to meet demand. Closing that gap would require an estimated 150 billion euros in public and private investment every year.
Households at risk of poverty face significantly higher rates of overcrowding, severe housing deprivation and energy poverty, all factors that make social and economic integration more difficult.
“So, regarding the investment gaps,” Gajewski adds, “we estimated that more than one and a half million new units are provided each year, and we need to solve the housing crisis; we need an additional 650,000 units in the next 10 years.”
Gajewski emphasised the need to mobilise additional public and private investments, building public-private partnerships and innovative ways of financial engineering. He added the importance of those “initiatives taken by social economy actors, by private individuals, by private investors, and how to build this comprehensive ecosystem and to address all these challenges in our cities and regions.” As an example, he mentions the New European Bauhaus, which includes the recommendation of building inclusive, green and aesthetic neighbourhoods.
Supporting young people before exclusion takes hold
Housing solutions are only one part of the integration puzzle. Preventing exclusion at an early stage is equally important. The CEB also supports Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil, which focuses on young people and families facing vulnerability through a holistic approach that involves housing, education, training and social programmes.
Founded almost 160 years ago, the organisation now supports around forty thousand individuals and nine thousand families across hundreds of sites. Its work ranges from child protection and education to vocational training and employment support.
[Paris also raises awareness] for Parisians to better understand the important challenges, and the opportunities to better welcome and integrate migrants.
“We’re not adults dealing with many kids,” explains one of the volunteers. “We’re a group of adults dealing with each kid individually.”
At the Saint-Philippe campus near Paris, programmes for schooling, child protection and professional training operate side by side. Young people can follow tailored pathways depending on their needs, from secondary education to vocational training in sectors such as horticulture, woodwork or electrical trades.
Pauline, coordinator of the project, highlights the importance of the families. which place “a crucial role in the lives we want for these children,” she explains. “We believe families have the capabilities and skills to accompany the children. What we want is to develop and enhance their parental skills.”
One initiative, La Touline, supports young people leaving child protection services as they transition into adulthood. Participants receive assistance with housing, administrative procedures and employment planning, helping them build the foundations for an independent life.
The cost of supporting a young person through the programme is around three thousand euros per year, a relatively small investment compared with the long-term social and financial costs of homelessness. This is thanks to their innovative financing system based on private donations and volunteer work.
In total, the budget of the project amounts to 600 million euros. 57% comes from public funding (mainly child welfare contributors), and 43% from private sources (donations, sponsorship, bequests).
Unlocking social investment
Meeting these needs requires more than traditional public funding. Financial institutions specialising in social investment are therefore playing an increasingly important role.
We estimated that more than one and a half million new units are provided each year, and we need to solve the housing crisis; we need an additional 650,000 units in the next 10 years.
The CEB, founded in 1956 to support migrants and refugees displaced after the Second World War, mobilises resources from financial markets and provides long-term loans for projects that strengthen social cohesion. “And 70 years after our mandate, this field is as relevant as ever,” says Tomas Bocek, Vice-Governor for Target Group Countries at the CEB.
“It is essential that we capitalise on our collective experience and knowledge and that concrete approaches and solutions to migrant integration are shared, transposed, scaled up as needed in the coming period,” he adds.
With a triple-A credit rating, the bank can borrow funds at relatively low cost and pass these favourable conditions on to partners, including cities and regional authorities. Its financing typically supports projects ranging from social housing and education infrastructure to health facilities and services for vulnerable populations.
In 2025 alone, the bank approved fifty-four new projects in twenty-six countries, with average investments of around eighty million euros per project. Loan volumes generally range between ten and two hundred million euros and can be complemented by technical assistance grants that help public authorities prepare and implement projects. Since 2010, 5.87 billion euros have been allocated in 41 cities.
Thomas Adams, Country Manager at CEB, highlights examples of projects supporting refugee and social housing through different types of borrowers. One is a multi-sector municipal investment programme in Leipzig that combines education infrastructure with temporary accommodation for refugees and homeless people. Another example is financing Berlin’s municipal housing company Gewobag, to construct and modernise social and affordable housing, including units dedicated to refugees.
Cities at the forefront of integration need financing
As reported by Eurostat and the United Nations for 2024, Europe hosts about 87 million migrants, making it the largest migrant hosting region globally. At the level of the EU alone, there are around 38 million people who were born abroad.
We believe families have the capabilities and skills to accompany the children. What we want is to develop and enhance their parental skills.
Across Europe, initiatives like Maison Saint Charles and Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil are becoming increasingly important as cities face mounting pressure on housing systems and integration services.
“For decades,” says Bocek, “communities across Europe have turned migration from a challenge into an opportunity for social and economic growth and strengthened social cohesion. We have helped people find their place, build friendships, and contribute to the communities they now call home. We have strengthened the fabric of our societies and given all residents, new and old, a chance to contribute with their skills and creativity.”
While policy frameworks are often defined at the national or European level, cities are where integration happens in practice. Local authorities are often responsible for delivering education, housing, health and employment support, yet they frequently struggle with fragmented funding streams, complex regulations and limited investment capacity.
Paris offers a clear illustration. “Around 20 per cent of the city’s residents have a migration background,” explains Eva Thollet, Project Officer responsible for the reception and integration of migrant and refugee populations at the City of Paris, and the municipality has long sought to position itself as a sanctuary city, combining humanitarian support with long-term integration policies.
“We finance NGOs that offer programmes of professional integration, French classes, access to sport, to culture, and access to rights,” explains Thollet. Many NGOs, she explains, offer programmes that integrate all these services. Paris also finances full projects, such as the House of Refugees, which rules the place where more than 50 other NGOs work.
She explains that Paris also raises awareness “for Parisians to better understand the important challenges, and the opportunities to better welcome and integrate migrants.” For instance, organising, participating in, or funding cultural events (such as film projections or exhibitions on integration) open to the public.
Yet the housing crisis is placing increasing pressure on the system. Across France, approximately 350,000 people are homeless and more than four million are considered poorly housed. “In Paris alone, around 50,000 people currently live in shelters,” explains Céline Kengadarane, Project Officer at the city of Paris.
Street counts conducted by local authorities have identified thousands of people sleeping rough on a single night, despite extensive emergency accommodation programmes.
In response, the city has increasingly embraced a housing-first approach, recognising that stable accommodation is often the first step towards social and professional integration. Priority access to housing for priority groups like migrants and asylum seekers is given, using a housing first approach as a starting point for integration.
The strategy combines emergency shelter, prevention measures and an ambitious expansion of social housing. Paris has increased the share of social housing from 13 per cent in 2001 to 23 per cent in 2024 and aims to reach 40 per cent by 2035.
Despite this progress, demand continues to exceed supply, with roughly 300,000 households currently waiting for social housing in the French capital. France Terre d’Asile is an example of housing for migrant communities, with 12 social homes provided for shelter and sublets for refugees.
From innovative projects to scalable solutions
The experiences of these organisations illustrate a broader lesson from and for European cities. Innovative projects already exist and demonstrate effective ways to support vulnerable populations and foster inclusion. Yet scaling these initiatives requires the right financial ecosystem.
For cities, the challenge lies in navigating these instruments, building partnerships with social organisations and developing investment strategies that can operate long-term.
If successful, such approaches could transform how integration policies are implemented across Europe. Housing initiatives could move beyond emergency responses towards long-term social investment, while education and employment programmes could prevent exclusion before it becomes entrenched.
These themes were explored during a mutual learning meeting on financing housing solutions for migrants and refugees in cities, organised by Eurocities and the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris on 10 and 11 March 2026. The meeting aimed at supporting city representatives with sharing knowledge of innovative funding models for migrant integration and raising awareness of the potential role played by InvestEU.
EU programmes such as InvestEU, alongside development banks and impact investors, aim to mobilise both public and private capital to support projects in housing, education and social infrastructure. CEB is working together with Eurocities to connect cities and explore their options to access innovative financing.
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This initiative is commissioned by the Council of Europe Development Bank and benefits from financial support from the European Union under the InvestEU Advisory Hub. The views expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the Consultant and cannot be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union or the Council of Europe Development Bank.
