Introduction

The general purpose of this chapter is to examine models of resettlement for the homeless in the European Union. The specific purpose is to outline the particular paradigms of settlement that are to be found in the European countries; to examine their main characteristics and principal outcomes; and to comment on their implications.

The writer has drawn on material assembled by the European Observatory on Homelessness, run by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), in Brussels; principally on papers prepared by its EUROHOME project (Emergency and transitory housing for homeless people – needs and best practices); and has consulted with experts on homelessness in the European countries.

The area of research into homelessness is especially burdened with problems of definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following definition of settlement will be used:

The context of poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Homeless is a small but distinct and acute part of the wider problem of poverty in modern Europe. It is estimated that 57 million Europeans now live in poverty (Eurostat, 1997). Worryingly, these figures showed an upward trend of 10% over the years 1988-93. The problem of European poverty was first recognised when in 1975 the European Communities initiated the first of three programmes against poverty (1975-80; 1985-89; 1989-94). In 1989, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution on social exclusion. Subsequent substantial policy documents of the European Communities, later termed the European Union, stressed how social policy objectives must be developed in tandem with the completion of the internal market and European economic integration (European Commission, 1993, 1994). The current round of the structural funds (1994-99) includes a Community Initiative Programme INTEGRA designed to assist those excluded from society and the labour force. The Social Action Programme, the present governing document of European social policy, includes a chapter on measures, actions and proposals to promote a more inclusive society.

Dealing specifically with the question of homelessness, the first programme against poverty identified homeless people as a distinct element within the broader problem of poverty and groups working with the homeless were targeted for support in the second programme.