The Council of Europe's European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR) have released its annual conclusions.
This year they looked at whether countries live up to their responsibilities to ensure the right to housing. Six of the eight EU Member States that are bound deliver on this fundamental right, failed to do so - France, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. Only Finland and Sweden met the requirements.
Freek Spinnewijn, Director of FEANTSA (the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless), said:
"The example of Finland and Sweden shows that it is possible to respect the right to housing, which should be an encouragement for other countries to step up their ambition."
Referring to the ECSR conclusions, Freek Spinnewijn went on to say:
"While countries like France and Italy were severely criticized for their inadequate measures to address homelessness and to ensure the right to housing, Finland was congratulated on its successfully implemented strategy to reduce homelessness by half by 2011."
Regarding France, Freek Spinnewijn stated that:
"It is disappointing that despite passing an enforceable right to housing (DALO) in 2007, partly a response to FEANTSA's successful collective complaint against France, the country still fails to provide people with access to housing of an adequate standard (Article 31.1), has failed to significantly reduce the number of people who are homeless (Article 31.2)and fails to ensure that housing prices be accessible to those with limited resources (Article 31.3)."
The ECSR condemned France for its policy of forced evictions. Based on evidence provided by FEANTSA, the ECSR found it unacceptable that between 2007 and 2009, 91,000 families were threatened with eviction with no prospect of being re-housed and were no longer entitled to Housing Benefits. No follow-up is secured, be it of tenants who left of their own accord or tenants who were evicted by law enforcement agencies.
Freek Spinnewijn added:
"Our Italian member organization, Fio.PSD, reports that in addition to Italy's absolute failure to deliver on the right to housing or meet any of the requirements of Article 31, the data in the government's report is questionable.
"Seemingly neither the Ministry of Welfare nor homeless service providers were consulted about statistics on homelessness and housing in Italy."
The ECSR further condemned Italy's Housing Benefit policies, which are highly discriminatory towards non-Italian born citizens.
Freek Spinnewijn concluded that:
"These reports are damning evidence of the lack of political will and support for commitments that these countries have made at international level.
"National and local organizations fight on behalf of vulnerable people to access their rights to safe, decent and affordable housing. Countries who fail to ensure these rights condemn people to live in substandard accommodation, wait for years on social housing lists, and in some cases face increasing debt levels or even forced eviction."
A new pilot campaign has been launched to tackle the increase of people from Central and Eastern Europe becoming homeless on England's streets.
The Before You Go campaign, run by the Passage in partnership with Thames Reach and Homeless Link, will aim to reach people in their home countries before they leave for British shores and make them aware of the dangers of coming to the UK without appropriate support in place before.
Chief Executive at The Passage, Mick Clarke, said:
"At the Passage, our street outreach team is out on the streets seven nights a week, every night of the year, to help people have a way off those streets and out of homelessness. We are also determined to do all we can to prevent people ending up on the streets in the first instance, and this includes economic migrants who can be exploited and put at risk because they have not been able to prepare properly before leaving home.
"Having a job secured, with secure accommodation in place and ensuring that your travel arrangements are organised by a reputable company can be the difference between successful migration and ending up sleeping on the streets."
The Combined Homelessness and Information Network, run by Broadway, estimates that in London alone there has been a 20% increase in rough sleepers from Central and Eastern Europe in the last two years.
[Link2] Location, Location: How Localism is Shunting Homeless Families Out .
A major change introduced by the Localism Act will allow councils to leave homeless families with the offer of a 12-month private tenancy, and no hope of a more secure home in social housing.
In her article for the Guardian's Housing Network, Deborah Garvie looks at the likely implications and argues that Government guidance should prevent councils from exporting the problem of homelessness to cheaper, poorer areas.
Deborah Garvie is Senior Policy Officer at Shelter.