Annex B: additional summary tables

• Author: Isabel Baptista - Eric Marlier
• Pages: 113-126

National strategies to fight home lessness and housing exclusion Synthesis Report

113

ANNEX B: ADDITIONAL SUMMARY TABLES

Table B1: Main recent innovations in the provision of homelessness services

Country Innovations

AT (Austria) Increased move towards Housing-First methods

BE (Belgium) Assistance to social housing residents with significant psychological problems

Belgian Homeless Cup (football)

BG (Bulgaria) No innovations (HHE not recognised as a widespread or serious problem)

CY (Cyprus) Centres for homeless. Although these cannot be defined as innovations in the provision of

homelessness services, they are novel and praiseworthy efforts for the policy context of Cyprus

CZ (Czechia)

Implementation of the Housing First (rapid re-housing) approach

Increasing emphasis on social work with the homeless and on prevention, also including

empowerment and participative methods of working with the homeless, accompanied by specific

targeted projects

DE (Germany)

Variety of measures to intensify housing construction and ensure affordability of housing,

including the construction of 1.5 million new apartments. Individual Bundesländer such as North

Rhine-Westphalia have financially supported the implementation of Housing First through

regional programmes

DK (Denmark)

Social Free Card – The card gives socially vulnerable people the possibility to earn up to €2,680

annually tax-free and without the earned income leading to any reduction in social assistance or

other benefits that the homeless person may be claiming

Socio-economic investment model (SØM), which consists of a calculator of intervention costs and

budgetary consequences and a knowledge database about the effects of social interventions, as

well as estimates to calculate the economic consequences for different target groups

EE (Estonia)

Amendments to the Social Welfare Act

Development of general guide on the quality of social services

EL (Greece) Ithaca’s Mobile Laundry for the Homeless in Athens

Shower Bus for Homeless people

ES (Spain)

Shift from a welfare logic, based on the offer of shelters or residences, to a housing-led logic/

Housing First methodology

Development of housing and health access programmes, run by specialised NGOs

FI (Finland)

AUNE project (2016-19), whose purpose is to produce 2,500 new dwellings for homeless people

and to provide more customer-oriented, preventive and cost-effective services

NEA project (2018-20), whose main aim is to make female homelessness more visible on the

political agenda and to eliminate female homelessness

FR (France) Housing First strategy

HR (Croatia) Housing First project in the city of Zagreb run by the Croatian Homelessness Network (initial

stage)

HU

New Housing First initiatives funded from EU funds. A special regulation was introduced in 2017,

the so-called “red-code”, for days which are too cold (below minus 10 degree Celsius) and too

hot (above 27 degree Celsius). The regulation states that not only do homeless shelters have to

take homeless clients and offer safe stay, but the same applies to any social institutions which

have beds. The regulation is contained in the Social Act (1993. III., 65/. § (3)). The aim is to

prevent people sleeping rough from extreme health risks and death

IE (Ireland)

Family Hubs, whose aim is to provide a form of emergency accommodation that offers greater

stability for homeless families, facilitate more coordinated needs assessment and support

planning, including on-site access to required services (such as welfare, health and housing

services). Family Hubs provide appropriate family support and surroundings but they are

temporary

IT (Italy)

Housing First approach. Also worth mentioning is a new funding line that was introduced to

support “extreme poverty and homeless people”; it finances services and initiatives targeted at

homeless people and is promoted by the regional and local authorities