Social housing
EU must tackle housing crisis
The European Parliament today adopted a report by Green MEP Karima Delli on the housing crisis in Europe. Commenting after the vote, Karima Delli said:
"Parliament has today underlined the urgent need for European action to address the severe, long-term housing crisis hitting countries across the EU. The support for the report, which sets out policies and measures on social housing, sends a clear political signal on the need to address this issue.
"The economic crisis has had major consequences for housing. In 2010, 6% of EU citizens were homeless, with 18% living in overcrowded or sub-standard housing. Over 1 in 10 households were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. Social housing is an essential response by the state to the failure of the housing market. This report underlines that the right to housing is a fundamental right to ensure human dignity: EU governments have a duty to provide decent housing for all at an affordable price.
"The support of MEPs for steps to prevent the eviction of households unable to meet mortgage repayments (whether in Ireland, Spain or other countries that are dealing with the consequences of property speculation) is a significant development. The report also calls for the adaptation of tax policy to favour the construction of social housing, which will in turn help to restrain housing speculation, with a view to preventing any future housing slump.
"MEPs also supported the call for better coordination of national housing policies and the creation of an EU Homelessness Strategy, as already proposed by the EP. We now look to the EU Commission and member states to act on this."
