The online event will take place on the 7th of October 2024. 

Slums or informal settlements have been defined as a particular type of inadequate housing characterised by insecurity of tenure, lack of access to basic services and infrastructure, as well as dwellings that lack quality/durability. Within the ETHOS definition, people living in informal settlements, although they are not roofless, are nonetheless homeless, as they live under the threat of eviction in unfit structures. Thus, addressing the living conditions of people in informal settlements lies at the intersection of homelessness and housing policies.

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The aim of our debate is to discuss informal settlement policies in relation to adequate rehousing. It will bring together representatives of social services organisations, activist collectives, European institutions, as well as researchers to analyse obstacles and achievements in such rehousing programs in France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Romania.

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The program of the event will be as follows.

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Save the date and register by filling out this form.

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You can check the recording of our debate here.

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The International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) 2022 will take place in Helsinki, Finland on the 14-17th of June.

The themes of this year will be; Quality of housing as quality of living; Achieving affordability and sustainability in housing & The right to housing: getting rid of the excuses not to guarantee it and will offer a broad compilation of events on with different perspectives of the housing world and housing solutions to homelessness.  

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The Housing Solutions Platform will organize one event: Homelessness to housing: improve the synergies between policy strategy & delivery through social work, bringing together key actors to explore the relationship between housing policy strategy and the reality of social work in bringing housing to those who need it most. 

On Tuesday 16 November from 13:00PM to 15:00PM (CET), the Housing Solutions Platform will organise an online debate on the New European Bauhaus, questioning the place dedicated to homelessness in this initiative.

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The New European Bauhaus (NEB) started out as an initiative to improve the lives of the European citizens by improving the quality of buildings and the availability of quality homes.

This HSP Debate will discuss to what extent the NEB will contribute to making more quality housing available to those most in need, including to people in situations of homelessness.

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On 20 April 2021, HSP organised a meeting between the European Commission and several NGOs, civil society organisations, and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) to discuss the Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) announced by the European Commission as a cornerstone of its Renovation Wave strategy.

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The summary of the event, video and presentation can be found in the section "HSP Knowledge".

On 18 November, HSP will host a webinar about the impact of short-term rental platform on housing prices.

We will discuss the strong growth of short-term rental platforms and the negative consequences this can have in the housing and tourism sector. It will also be necessary to examine the existing legislative framework surrounding these platforms and to question its relevance and effectiveness. The debate will be hosted by Kim van Sparrentak MEP.

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The 50 Housing Solutions launch event will take place on 11th December from 3pm to 6.30pm. 

Housing Solutions Platform will launch its compendium of innovative and daring housing solutions from around Europe.

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This event, hosted by Katrin Langensiepen MEP from the Greens/EFA group, will bring together MEPs, city representatives and other relevant stakeholders for a discussion on how to best solve pressing housing issues around Europe.

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Register here before 3rd December!

This workshop, facilitated by Juha Kaakinen, CEO of the Y-Foundation, will focus on two examples of innovative housing solutions in Europe, in the framework of the “50 housing solutions” HSP call.

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The Home for All Alliance (Hjem til alle) from Denmark will present student housing projects including students having experienced homelessness.

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In Scotland, The Social Bite Village is a somewhat controversial, out-of-the-box housing community comprised of tiny homesto house homeless people.

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A Conference from Housing Europe, holding with their partners, University of Scheffield, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Politecnico di Milano and Architecture Sans Frontières  - International.

Through interactive discussion with representatives of institutions, civil society organisations, housing providers, networks and academics, this event aims at addressing some key questions: What is the evidence from the ground? How can we build up knowledge and practice on the inclusion of migrants and refugees? How can inclusion at local level effectively be supported by the EU?

The event will take place in the European Parliament on 27 March 2023. It will be hosted by MEP Kim van Sparrentak and organized by the Housing Solutions Platform. 

In the framework of the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness, the event will bring together European institutions representatives, local authorities, the housing sector, policy makers and researchers to better understand EU funds potential to address homelessness, through for instance the designing of housing solutions or vacant housing renovation. 

In addition, local projects will be featured showing how they use EU funds.

The program of the event will be as follows.

Save the date and register by filling out this form.

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On Thursday the 24th of March from 10.00 - 12.30am CET, the Housing Solutions Platform will organize an online debate on The New European Bauhaus, focusing on the specific role of architecture to bring in disruptive practices and foster cross sectoral cooperation for urban inclusion.  

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The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative was launched in the autumn 2020 by European Commission to make the European Green Deal go hand in hand with a new cultural project for Europe based on aesthetics, sustainability and inclusiveness. The Housing Solutions Platform organized a first event on the New European Bauhaus from a homelessness perspective in November 2021 focusing on what would an inclusive NEB be, what impact could it bring.

This second HSP debate on the NEB will focus particularly on the role of architecture to bring in disruptive practices for inclusion, bringing in researchers and practitioners to discuss both conceptual approaches and concrete delivery. 

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Emergency accommodation has proven to be ineffective to solve homelessness. This webinar explored how existing buildings (hotels, shops, student housing) can be transformed into long-term housing or accommodation as an alternative to shelter. This debate discussed where such housing is going to come from and how it can be made available quickly and at scale whilst ensuring adequacy, also drawing upon learnings from and practices developed during the COVID19 pandemic. Discussions focused on the implementation aspect of transforming collective housing and also covered financial questions. 

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Watch the debate here or read the report here.

On 25th February 2021, the HSP hosted a debate on the opportunities of depopulation and shrinking cities for solutions to homelessness. The debate was hosted by MEP Niklas Nienass. Panellists were Chris Jacobs-Crisioni from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Chloé Serme-Morin from FEANTSA, Conrado Jimenez, president of Madrina Foundation and Meric Ozgunes and Panos Hatziprokopiou from the URBACT ROOF network.

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The summary of the event, video and presentation can be found in the section "HSP Knowledge".

On 9th June, FEANTSA, the Fondation Abbé Pierre & Housing Europe held an online roundtable e-hosted by Mounir Satouri MEP (EFA/Greens, EMPL rapporteur on the Just Transition Fund). The aim of the event was to discuss how the Green Deal, and particularly the new Just Transition Fund, can generate real social impact and reach people living in poor housing conditions.

More about the event in the section HSP Knowledge.

The next HSP Debates "A Green New Deal for all Europeans?" will take place on 9th December from 4pm to 7pm. 

FEANTSA and the Fondation Abbé Pierre will launch their thematic report on existing national mechanisms to address fuel poverty in housing.

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This event, co-organised with the Right to energy coalition, will bring together MEPs, social and environmental NGOs to discuss how the Green new deal could be shaped to address both climate and social justice.    

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Register here!

How to boost cooperation towards the common fight against social exclusion?

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Don't miss our event with the International Union of Property Owners, were we will be discussing the role of the private rental market in ensuring housing for all, with a specific focus on social rental agencies.

The results of a new publication by FEANTSA and the Fondation Abbé Pierre about Ethical renting will also be discussed.

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Registration here.

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Young Foundation webinar featuring FEANTSA Director discussing the different approaches to addressing housing exclusion in Europe 

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In light of the European Commission´s launch of the Safe Homes Guidance, the Housing Solutions Platform organized an online debate to get a better understanding of the initiative and how it actually responds to the housing needs of the refugees fleeing Ukraine. Experts from both European and grassroot levels together with representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament reflected on opportunities and risks linked to the provision of private accommodation and discussed what further EU-level support is possible and needed for long term housing solutions, beyond private accommodation. Find more information about the debate below and the recording of the event here:
https://youtu.be/kbpPbQPy_ZU

This webinar on rethinking rent control in Europe will occur on Tuesday, December 7th on Zoom, from 10:00AM to 12:30PM (CET).

This is the first event organized in collaboration between Housing Rights Watch,and the Housing Solutions platform.

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The sharp rise in rents in the private rental sector, particularly in cities with a strained rental market, is increasingly affecting European citizens who are having to pay more for housing. Across the European Union, about one third of the population is housed in private rental accommodation. The increasing disparity between rent and the decrease in household incomes is pushing public authorities to regulate the rental market in order to ensure access to affordable housing for all. Increasingly used across the EU, rent controls are becoming a key measure when the property market or social housing stock are unable to meet the needs of low-income and middle-class households. In this debate we shall hear at different speakers on the relevance and need of rent regulation in European countries.

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On 18th June 2021, the Housing Solutions Platform held a debate on social housing policies and partnerships to end Homelessness post-Covid 19.  The debate was hosted by MEP Cindy Franssen. Panellists were Sarah Coupechoux from FAP, Montes Miguel, Vice-president of the Spanish Federation of Public Housing, AVS, Kjell Larsson, the President of FEANTSA and Director of the Swedish Association of City Mission, Bjorn Mallants, the Director of VVH, the Association of Flemish Housing Companies and Katarina Ivankovic-Knezevic, Director of the unit Social Affairs in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

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The summary of the event, video and presentation can be found in the section "HSP Knowledge".

On 29 January 2021 the HSP and Kim van Sparrentak MEP hosted an online event on the impact of covid-19 on the housing market. Experts from the OECD, the Resolution Foundation and NGOs highlighted the housing crisis before covid and how it is now likely to be exacerbated. In a second part, NGOs, the city of Lyon and Housing Europe presented potential solutions on how to address the situation, through policies and practices.

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The summary of the event, video and presentation will shortly be uploaded on this page!

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The EU Green Deal promises to make the EU carbon neutral by 2050 and to “leave no one behind”. This new HSP debate  focused on how could the Renovation Wave deliver on three inter-related challenges of access to housing, energy efficiency and energy poverty. The event was hosted (online) by Ciaran Cuffe MEP (EFA/Greens) and brought together a range of academic speakers, policymakers, and NGO representatives to discuss how energy poverty and climate change can be addressed.

The event was recorded in full and is available here, along with the speakers' presentations.

Out-of-the-Box Solutions for the Locked Out in Europe

The workshop will bring together cross sectoral actors to discuss the most innovative housing solutions existing in Europe today and look at the key existing gaps.  

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It will give visibility to and debate examples of innovative which 

offer a useful contribution to the debate around how to give access to decent housing to the most vulnerable households. 

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List of speakers

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Register here

Our debate in the European Parliament with academics, local authorities and policy makers will be live-streamed on FEANTSA's Facebook page.

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Are home-sharing services taking housing off the long-term rental market and therefore playing a significant role in driving up rents to unaffordable levels? Are rent rising faster in neighbourhoods where sharing economy platforms are most popular? What role for cities and the rental-platforms to address the housing crisis? These are the questions we will address today. We hope to see you there.

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Roundtable organised in Brussels on how creative new financing methods are needed to cope with Europe's increasing need for new housing

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