Regions

Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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The homelessness monitor: England 2018

The homelessness monitor is a longitudinal study providing an independent analysis of the homelessness impacts of recent economic and policy developments in England. It considers both the consequences of the post-2007 economic and housing market recession, and the subsequent recovery, and also the impact of policy changes. This seventh annual report updates our account of how homelessness stands in England in 2018, or as...

Young & Homeless 2018

Homeless Link

Young people with experiences of homelessness are one of the most vulnerable groups in society and continue to make up approximately half of the people accessing homelessness services in England. For the past seven years, Homeless Link’s national study on youth homelessness has provided crucial evidence to inform policy and practice. This sixth edition explores key trends in youth homelessness and the availability and nature...

Problems Maintaining Collaborative Approaches with Excluded Populations in a Randomised Control Trial: Lessons Learned Implementing Housing First in France

In 2006, a local collective combating homelessness set up an ‘experimental squat’ in an abandoned building in Marseille, France’s second-largest city. They envisioned the squat as an alternative to conventional health and social services for individuals experiencing long-term homelessness and severe psychiatric disorders. Building on what they learned from the squat, some then joined a larger coalition that succeeded in...

Homelessness and gambling: a complex relationship

Steve Sharman

Jenny Dreyer

Luke Clark

Herietta Bowden-Jones

This poster synthesizes research conducted on homelessness and gambling. The authors conclude that gambling is predominately a cause of homelessness, although some problems develop after people find housing.

Effectiveness of interventions to reduce homelessness. A systematic review

Despite work to prevent and reduce homelessness over the last 15 years, the number of homeless persons in Norway has remained stable since the first mapping of homelessness was published in 1997. We conducted a systematic review on the effectiveness of housing programs and case management to improve housing stability and reduce homelessness among people who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless. The key findings show...

National Strategies to Address Homelessness in the European Union

Eoin O'Sullivan

This presentation highlights strategies to tackle homelessness in Europe with respect to development, temporary accommodation, service delivery, access to housing, and policy and prevention strategies.

State-Civil Society Partnerships For Policy Advocacy And Implementation In Developing Countries

Derick Brinkerhoff

The focus of this paper is on the partnership mode of interaction between the public sector and the private and non-governmental sectors. The paper examines cases of policy implementation where governments and civil society groups/NGOs are jointly involved, and offers some preliminary lessons relating to: situational variables that constrain/facilitate state-civil partnerships, mechanisms that support collaboration, and the...

Tackling homelessness and exclusion: Understanding complex lives

Theresa McDonagh

For some people, homelessness is not just a housing issue but something that is inextricably linked with complex and chaotic life experiences. Mental health problems, drug and alcohol dependencies, street culture activities and institutional experiences (such as prison and the care system) are often closely linked with the more extreme experiences of homelessness. This Round-up looks at evidence collected as part of the...

Complex needs: Homelessness services in the Housing Options East Hub

Manual Macias

Scotland is widely regarded as having some of the most progressive homelessness legislation and practice in the world. Since 2012, every unintentionally homeless person has the right to a permanent home, and to temporary accommodation, advice and housing support while a permanent home is found. These rights and a new focus on prevention of homelessness through the housing options approach has transformed the response to...

Nutrition and the homeless: the underestimated challenge

J.V. Seale

R. Fallaize

J. A. Lovegrove

Homelessness is present in most societies and represents a situation in which the basic needs for survival including food are often limited. It is logical to surmise that the homeless person’s diet is likely to be nutritionally deficient and yet there is a relative paucity in research regarding this issue with studies varying in both their methodology and homeless population. Despite these differences, diets of the homeless...

Homelessness, Empowerment and Self-reliance in Scotland and Ireland: The Impact of Legal Rights to Housing for Homeless People

Beth Watts

This paper explores the impact of legal rights to housing for people experiencing homelessness, focusing on the capacity of such rights to ‘empower’ those experiencing homelessness. The paper draws on a qualitative comparison of approaches to homelessness in Scotland and Ireland. Whereas in Scotland virtually all those who are homeless now have a legal right to settled accommodation, Ireland has rejected such a ‘legalistic’...

OECD: Affordable Housing Database

Access to good-quality affordable housing is a fundamental need and key to achieving a number of social policy objectives, including reducing poverty and enhancing equality of opportunity, social inclusion and mobility. Housing needs are frequently unmet, and today a significant number of people across the OECD are homeless and too many households live in low-quality dwellings or face housing costs they can ill afford. The...

Danger Zones and Stepping Stones: Phase Two

Sarah McCoy

The first phase, in 2015-16, involved a qualitative exploration of young people’s experiences of temporary living between periods of stable accommodation. Based on the findings of that research, Depaul UK proposed a new approach to assessing temporary living circumstances – using the Danger Zones and Stepping Stones Model. To further the understanding of young people’s experiences and enhance the thinking behind the Model, in...

Housing people who are homeless in Glasgow

Scottish Housing Regulator

This report sets out the findings from our review of how effectively Glasgow City Council and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) house people who are homeless. A main finding from the report is that people who are experiencing homelessness are not being housed quickly enough. The report includes recommendations such as setting clear objectives, keeping in contact with clients throughout the housing process, and more.

Report on Homelessness

The Scottish Parliament

We recommend that a Scottish style Housing First approach is implemented in Scotland. We believe that it represents an important piece of the jigsaw which, together with other approaches, would provide for a successful person-centered approach to tackling homelessness. As our report shows successfully reducing homelessness requires that a person's immediate housing needs are addressed alongside any underlying issues that led...

Third Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe

Fondation Abbé Pierre

FEANTSA

Since 2015, FEANTSA and the Fondation Abbé Pierre have released a yearly Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe. These annual reports look at the latest Eurostat data (EU-SILC) and assess EU countries' capacity to adequately house their populations. This 2018 report reveals how millions of Europeans face housing exclusion on a daily basis as well as a dramatic picture of increasing homelessness across most of the EU – in...

Using Housing First in Integrated Homelessness Strategies

Nicholas Pleace

This report explores Housing First in relation to the evidence base on services designed to end homelessness among single people (i.e. lone adults) with support needs. Some attention is given to prevention and relief services, but this report is concerned with services for those single homeless people who require support as well as housing. The report does not encompass services for homeless families. The report has four...

What Works in Inclusion Health: Overview of Effective Interventions for Marginalised and Excluded Populations

Inclusion health is an emergent approach that aims to address extreme health and social inequities. Target populations have common adverse life experiences and risk factors such as poverty and childhood trauma that lead to social exclusion. Consequently, these populations have extremely poor health, multiple morbidity, and early mortality. Compounding these problems are numerous barriers to accessing health services. The key...

Home closure as a weapon in the Dutch war on drugs: Does judicial review function as a safety net?

L. Michelle Bruijn

Michel Vols

Jan G.Brouwer

A widespread sense of a failing criminal justice system and increased feelings of insecurity changed the response to crime into a culture of control, which is characterized by policies that punish and exclude. In the Netherlands, these influences can be witnessed in the war on drugs where local authorities use their administrative power to close homes involved in drug-related crime. Citizens can invoke judicial review over...

Relevance of the use of ETHOS in the Assessment of Housing Exclusion: Proposals for Discussion from the Spanish Case

Olga García

Gaspar Brändle

ETHOS, the European Typology on Homelessness and Housing Exclusion, was launched by FEANTSA in 2005. Following a two-year review process, it became the main reference for the study of homelessness in the European Union. ETHOS is a conceptual and analytical tool that also provides a framework for debate and reflection on how to address housing exclusion. FEANTSA states that “ETHOS is an open exercise which makes abstraction of...

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