The European Parliament adopted by 349 votes to 45, with 113 abstentions a resolution on an EU homelessness strategy.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ALDE, and Greens/EFAgroups.

It urged the Commission to develop an EU homelessness strategy along the lines set out in Parliament’s resolution of 14 September 2011 on an EU homelessness strategy and in proposals from other EU institutions and bodies. Stating that responsibility for fighting homelessness lay with Member States, Members considered that an EU homelessness strategy should support Member States in taking up this responsibility. A stronger role for the Commission was possible within its current areas of competence and while respecting the principle of subsidiarity.

Homelessness had become a priority of the EU’s poverty policy in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy and its flagship-initiative the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion, as well as in the EU Social Investment Package. Homelessness also received increasing focus in the framework of the EU Semester. However, the current levels of poverty were jeopardising the Europe 2020 Strategy target of reducing the number of people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion by at least 20 million.

Parliament called on the Commission to establish a high-level expert group to support it in the preparation and further development of an EU homelessness strategy and to focus on the following priority themes for such a strategy:

·        housing-led / Housing First approaches to homelessness;

·        cross-border homelessness;

·        quality of homelessness services;

·        prevention of homelessness;

·        youth homelessness.

It stressed the following elements:

·        regular European monitoring of homelessness, including collecting comprehensive and comparable data;

·        research and knowledge building on homelessness policies and services;

·        social innovation in such policies and services.

Parliament also called on the Commission to:

·        give due consideration to homelessness in the Country Specific Recommendations for Member States, while the latter should strengthen the inclusion of homelessness in their National Reform Programmes;

·        use the EaSI (employment and social innovation) programme as the main source of funding for an EU strategy to finance research and transnational exchanges.

For its part, the Council was asked to consider introducing a recommendation on a guarantee to ensure that nobody in the EU is forced to sleep rough because of a lack of (emergency) services.

Parliament called on Member States and the EU Presidency to hold a European Round Table of EU Ministers responsible for homelessness, as initiated by the Irish EU Presidency in March 2013, with the Commission providing practical and financial support for this meeting.

Member States were urged to:

·        develop social and affordable housing adapted for the most vulnerable individuals in order to prevent homelessness;

·        put an end to the criminalisation of homeless people and to change the discriminatory practices used to prevent homeless people from accessing social services and shelter;

·        use the resources of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), as well as other programmes such as the European Social Fund (ESF), to improve the situation of homeless people;

·        enhance exchange of best practices and develop a common policy approach.

Lastly, Parliament stressed that homelessness was neither a crime nor a lifestyle choice and it underlined the need to combat any form of discrimination against the homeless and the marginalisation of entire communities.