WRITTEN QUESTION P-0750/03

by Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(5 March 2003)

Subject: The homeless in the European Union

The number of homeless people in the European Union is steadily increasing. According to Feantsa (the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless) there are some three million homeless people in the EU today, 10 % of whom sleep in the open on a permanent basis. The extent of the problem differs from one Member State to another, even though it is difficult to form an accurate picture of the situation and to make comparisons between Member States, owing to a lack of statistics and a precise definition.

Does the Commission have any studies on this phenomenon which threatens our social cohesion and undermines our social model? Does it have an evaluation of the housing policies of the Member States? Does it intend to take initiatives to address this problem?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(31 March 2003)

The issue of homelessness is an important aspect of the open method of co-ordination on social inclusion. Under objective 1 of the common objectives on poverty and social exclusion agreed at the European Council of Nice in December 2000 a goal to implement policies which aim to provide access for all to decent and sanitary housing, as well as the basic services necessary to live normally having regard to local circumstances was set up. A more specific goal was set up under objective 2: To put in place policies which seek to prevent life crises which can lead to situations of social exclusion, such as indebtedness, exclusion from school and becoming homeless.

Homelessness is a complex issue, which is about more than just housing. Many homeless people are also struggling with multiple problems mental and physical health, joblessness which drag them down into the spiral of poverty. This makes it essential not just to target street people, but take a larger approach to homelessness. Decent housing and living conditions are the most basic needs of each individual. Gaining secure access to adequate accommodation is often a pre-condition for exercising many of the fundamental rights that should be enjoyed by everyone.

The issue is highlighted in the Joint Report on Social Inclusion, based on an analysis of the National Plans, adopted in December 2001(1). The report identifies eight core challenges for the future most of which would contribute to addressing homelessness. In particular, Ensuring good accommodation for all is concerned with access to good quality and affordable accommodation as fundamental need and right. Ensuring that this need is met is still a significant challenge in a number of Member States. In addition, developing appropriate integrated responses both to prevent and address homelessness is another essential challenge for some countries. Member States are expected to set out initiatives to address these challenges in the National Plans they will submit in July 2003.

Significant steps have been made towards addressing the data gaps that exist in relation to poverty and social exclusion. However, this is an area where it is very difficult to gather satisfactory data coverage. The European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the statistical instrument for the collection of comparable data on income and living conditions, addresses issues of decent housing and living conditions. However, it cannot adequately meet the need to measure the extent of the phenomenon of homelessness since it is a household-based survey, thus excluding the homeless by definition. From 2003 onwards the ECHP will be replaced by the new statistical instrument Union-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), but that will continue to provide household-based statistics. In order to fill this gap, Eurostat has set up a specific expert group.

The objectives of this group are:

- To review the current availability of statistics in the 15 Member States and the 13 Candidate Countries and the countries that are member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including definitions; sampling methods; question asks; data availibility.

- To develop a harmonised methodology for future data collection, including a definition of homelessness; sampling guidelines; statistics to be collected.

- To propose a list of suitable indicators to be considered for common agreement by the Social Protection Committee.

(1) COM(2001) 565 final.