Decent and affordable housing for all
Quote from Kim van Sparrentak MEP
Today (21 January), the European Parliament adopted the report ‘access to decent and affordable housing for all’ by Greens/EFA MEP Kim van Sparrentak. The Parliament report is calling on the European Commission to propose an integrated strategy on affordable and social housing, to ensure that housing rights are put before market interests, and for an end to homelessness by 2030.
Kim van Sparrentak MEP, Greens/EFA MEP and European Parliament Rapporteur for the 'access to decent and affordable housing for all’ report, comments:
"Today's vote is a clear signal that Europe needs a more social housing policy, an end to homelessness by 2030, equal access to the housing market and climate-friendly housing. There is a housing crisis all over Europe: people across Europe face unaffordable rents, outdated and rundown housing and unsatisfactory living conditions. In urban areas in particular, many people find themselves in untenable situations that are driving them further out of the city. The Commission needs to propose an integrated strategy on affordable and social housing. Investment in reasonably priced, social and energy-efficient housing should be a priority for the economic recovery.
"Homelessness is a severe violation of human rights, yet it has almost doubled in the EU over the last ten years. The Commission should take stronger action to support Member States in reducing and eradicating homelessness and propose a goal to end it by 2030. The Commission and Portuguese Council Presidency must urgently push for an EU framework alongside national strategies to address the current housing and homelessness crisis."
More: The report can be found online here.
Today, over 80 million people in the EU are overburdened by housing costs and in the last decade, the number of homeless people in Europe has risen by 70%. Any night 700,000 people are sleeping rough in Europe. 34 million people are unable to keep their house adequately warm in winter. The COVID crisis makes even more urgent for the EU to act and launch a Europe-wide housing framework to enhance Member States’ efforts to provide efforts to provide inclusive, energy-efficient and healthy homes to all.
