May 2019
Hello and welcome (back) to the FEANTSA Flash!
We have been busy, and are proud to share our work with you. We hope you enjoy our updates! Is there something you'd like to see included in next month's issue? Let us know by clicking the button below!
Read ahead:
- FEANTSA Events: What's coming up next?
- FEANTSA News: What's new at FEANTSA? Anything you missed?
- FEANTSA Publications: Latest reports and publications on all things homelessness
- Member News: With over 100 members fighting tirelessly against homelessness in almost 30 countries, you know that there is always something going on
- Headlines: Homelessness in the media
- Employment: Recruitment and job offers in the sector
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An Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe
HSP event : Out-of-the-box Housing Solutions for the Locked out of Europe
Lyon, 6th June: The Housing Solutions Platform will be hosting a workshop at the International Social Housing Festival which will discuss the most innovative housing solutions existing in Europe today and look at the key existing gaps. It will give visibility to and debate examples of innovative housing solutions which offer a useful contribution to the debate around how to give access to decent housing to the most vulnerable households. There's still time to register here.
14th research conference on homelessness
Study Session: How the LGBTQI & Homeless Sector can work together
Budapest, 11th - 16th November: Applications have opened for the 2019 FEANTSA Youth Study Session which will focus on LGBTIQ homelessness. You can read the call for applications and the application form here. Deadline for applications is 21st June.
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FEANTSA Pledge Campaign for European Elections
For European Elections, FEANTSA held a campaign to encourage candidates to pledge to use their mandate to defend the rights of homeless people. With the #StandUpForHomelessPeople campaign, FEANTSA aimed to encourage the European Parliament and the European Commission to take action against homelessness in Europe. FEANTSA members contacted candidates in their countries, to the following result: 133 candidates (amongst which 1 Spitzenkandidatin) pledged to use their mandate, if elected, to stand up for Homeless People. Candidates came from 10 Member States, and more than 8 European Political Parties.
Training session on Motherhood and Homelessness
Ljubljana, 15th - 17th May : Mothers represent a growing segment of the homeless population and while they have very strong identities as mothers, this is not recognised by services, especially if their children are not in their care.
FEANTSA & partners held a training within the framework of the Erasmus Plus project Women and Homelessness. FEANTSA participated in this European exchange on how to provide non-judgemental trauma informed support to women experiencing homelessness around motherhood (separation from children, help to reconnect and to reunite with children, parenting in the situation of homelessness, pregnancy etc.) .
Training materials & good practices will soon be available on the FEANTSA website. To find out more about this project, or the next session (Helsinki, September) please contact Dalma Fabian
HSP Debates at the Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth
Brussels, 20th May: The Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth (ACIG) is an event held by the European Commission bringing together civil society organisations and policymakers to discuss how to achieve inclusive growth in Europe. The Housing Solutions Platform (a partnership between Fondation Abbé Pierre, Housing Europe & FEANTSA) was selected to host a side-event on the issue of innovative housing solutions, which brought together cross-sectoral actors to explore innovative solutions to provide housing to people locked-out of the housing market. The event showcased a variety of projects such as cohousing (CURANT and Lazare), community land trust focusing on intergenerational exchange (CLTB CALICO) and many others!
#FEANTSA2019 policy conference
Porto, 30th - 31st May: FEANTSA held its annual policy conference. This year's focus was FEANTSA @30 - Towards 2030, marking FEANTSA’s 30th anniversary, but also looking towards the future. In 30 years, FEANTSA should no longer be needed - we hope this will be the case! Presentations will be uploaded shortly on the FEANTSA website. The Plenary session from Friday was livestreamed and is available for replay here. Highlights were also livetweeted in this Twitter thread.
LGBTIQ youth survey
To support our work on LGBTIQ homelessness, FEANTSA has partnered with True Colours United to conduct a survey to better understand the needs of services to respond to the needs of LGBTIQ youth. The survey will take 15-20 mins to answer. Please share with homeless services you work for or with. The survey will be used to develop resources and tools to improve how services can respond to the challenges faced by homeless services. Find out more here.
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Report: The "Working Poor" and EU free movement
There is evidence to suggest a general trend towards a narrow interpretation of the notion of “worker”, which clearly targets mobile EU citizens with precarious working conditions who are also more vulnerable to homelessness. As a consequence, this approach jeopardises destitute mobile EU citizens’ chances of accessing welfare benefits and finding a way out of destitution.
European Journal of Homelessness, Volume 13.1
Volume 13, Issue 1 of the European Journal of Homelessness is now complete and available for download here.
Fourth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe
The Fourth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe is now available for download on this dedicated page. The page also includes highlights for different European Countries as well as infographics that can be shared on social media.
Call for contributions - European Journal of Homelessness Volume 13.2
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UK: The Homeless Monitor Report
Crisis UK launched The Homeless Monitor Report: England 2019 and The Homeless Monitor Report: Scotland 2019. The report measures the homelessness impact of recent economic and policy developments in England and Scotland, at a time of significant policy developments, with the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) in April 2018, and the Rough Sleeping Strategy in Summer 2018. The findings reflect a modest sense of relief. 71% local authorities participating in this year’s LA survey reported that homelessness had been recently increasing. The extraordinary increase since 2010 in homeless households seems finally to have peaked. Homelessness temporary accommodation placements, however, have continued to rise. After rapid growth since 2010 rough sleeping appears to have levelled of somewhat in England (2% decrease nationally).
Germany: A Guide for homeless mobile EU citizens
As part of the PRODEC project, GEBEWO has developed support materials for homeless mobile EU citizens. A guide explains in a clear and simple way what rights mobile EU citizens have and what kind of help is available for them in Berlin. Besides the German version, the guide was translated to Polish and Russian.
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“One million Euros for assistance to vulnerable people to be distributed also amongst homeless people and victims of trafficking”
Palermo, 10th May - The city council approved a plan for the use of up to about a million Euros for assistance to homeless people and vulnerable people. The resolution provides for different shares to finance Housing First Projects, Housing Led Projects, Day- and Night Street Work, Canteen Services and First-Level Dormitories. A specific allocation of funds is also aimed at women affected by Human trafficking. More by Palermi medio news here.
"Homeless people in UK ‘denied social housing as risky tenants’"
UK, 15th May – Housing associations have come under fire for routinely refusing to house homeless people nominated for empty social housing properties, on the grounds that welfare cuts make the poorest prospective tenants too much of a financial risk. Full report by The Guardian here.
"The Roofless are camping for the right to decent housing: 'We are the invisible of this country' "
Madrid, 20th May - For over a month, numerous homeless people have been camping between the Prado Museum and the Ministry of Health. They demand access to decent housing and an end to the stigma of life on the streets. The number of roofless people in Madrid has increased by more than 25% and shelters are saturated during the winter. Full report by 20 Minutos España.
"The #votinvisible initiative gives voice to the roofless through influential Twitter profiles"
Barcelona, 22nd May - On 22nd May, between 6PM and 8PM, in the context of Barcelona municipal elections, around 20 influential people gave their Twitter profile to people who live or have lived in the streets, to enable them to share their proposals on how to end homelessness with political parties running in Barcelona elections. The action was initiated by Arrels Fundació under the #votinvisible (Invisible Vote) Campaign. Full report by VilaWeb here.
“UN poverty expert hits back over UK ministers' 'denial of facts'”
UK, 24th May - On 22nd May, A United Nations expert had warned of deepening poverty in Britain in his final report on the impact of austerity on human rights in the UK. The report was this week dismissed as “barely believable” by ministers, to which the UN rapporteur has responded the government’s denial is as worrying as the poverty itself. Full report by the Guardian here.
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FEANTSA is seeking a Communications Assistant (intern)
We are recruiting a communications assistant for a paid 6-month internship. The successful candidate will support the Information and Communications Officer in her tasks at the Secretariat in Brussels. Deadline for applications is 26th June. Please refer to the full call for applications for more information.
Unafo is recruiting a task officer for territorial coordination (French-speaking)
Unafo is seeking a French-speaking task officer for territorial coordination, whose main mission would be to promote territorial action and to increase the sector's visibility. The job offer can be consulted here. The successful candidate would start on 1st September in Paris.
Other job offers by Unafo and their members, for more on-the-ground work, can be seen here.
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