St Mungo's welcomes new European campaign to end homelessness

St Mungo's welcomed the launch this week of 'Ending Homelessness', a new European campaign that sets out goals for ending homelessness as part of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

The campaign is being launched on Wednesday 14 April at the European Parliament in Brussels by FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless.

As part of the campaign, FEANTSA is also launching the publication 'Ending Homelessness: A Handbook for Policy Makers'. This draws together concrete examples of effective approaches to ending homelessness that have already been developed.

St Mungo's is the only English individual charity in the Handbook. The charity is highlighted for its work promoting client involvement through its representative group, Outside In, and initiatives such as peer research. Scottish charity Furniture Plus is also featured, alongside the work of the UK's umbrella organization Homeless Link.

Charles Fraser, Chief Executive of St Mungo's, said: "We welcome this European drive to tackle homelessness and the push for integrated strategies. If homeless people are to rebuild their lives and move out of poverty towards brighter futures, they need the support of connected services that work across national government departments, and which foster a pan-European solidarity.

"We are very pleased that our client involvement work has been recognized in the Handbook, which is a valuable addition to best practice learning for homelessness agencies. Client involvement has significantly helped us develop our employment pathways, our health strategy and our hostel and housing services over the past 40 years. Sharing such expertise can only help in our common goal of ending homelessness."

The Ending Homelessness campaign sets out five concrete goals to end homelessness, arguing that if these goals become part of integrated strategies to combat homelessness, it can be ended. The goals are:

No one sleeping rough
No one living in emergency accommodation for longer than is an 'emergency'
No one living in transitional accommodation longer than is required for successful move-on
No one leaving an institution without housing options
No young people becoming homeless as a result of the transition to independent living

In the framework of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, the message of the campaign is that ending homelessness in Europe is both necessary and possible. Managing the problem of homelessness is not enough. It is time to stop investing in reactive, short-term measures and to implement integrated strategies to end homelessness.