The Production of Data on Homelessness and Housing Deprivation in the European Union: Survey and Proposals
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2004 EDITION The production of data on homelessness and housing deprivation in the European Union: survey and proposals THEME 3 Population EUROPEAN and social COMMISSION 3conditions Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004 ISSN 1725-065X ISBN 92-894-8170-6 © European Communities, 2004 Report The production of data on homelessness and housing deprivation in the European Union: survey and proposals Prepared by Mrs. Cécile Brousse, INSEE for Eurostat unit D2 “Living conditions and social protection” – Head of unit: Mrs. Anne Clemenceau, Project coordinator: Mr. Ian Dennis. HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING DEPRIVATION Foreword Context Homelessness is perhaps the most extreme example of poverty and social exclusion in society today, both as symptom and as cause. This is nothing new, but since 2000 the struggle to improve social cohesion has moved higher up the European political agenda, and homelessness is now recognised as a subject of specific interest. However, although statistics on income, poverty and social exclusion have become increasingly important over the last few years, as these issues have joined the ranks of the major European political concerns, so far there are few official statistics on homelessness1 and international comparisons are therefore difficult. So in 2001, Eurostat established a group of experts to study the feasibility of remedying this lack of relevant information. To supply data for the work of this group, Eurostat launched a public tendering process, which was won by INSEE. This report is the result of that work. It complements recent publications by Eurostat on income, poverty and social exclusion within the European Union2. The report makes an important contribution to the progress of efforts to gauge the scale and extent of homelessness and housing deprivation within the European context. Details of the availability of information and the methods used to collect it are drawn up on the basis of a study of literature and direct contact with a number of government bodies and other local, national and international organisations, covering the 15 EU Member States, Norway, eight of the ten applicant countries (excluding Lithuania and Malta), Bulgaria, Croatia, Canada and the United States. Acknowledgements This report was written for Eurostat Unit D2 ‘Living conditions and social protection’ – Head of Unit: Anne Clemenceau, Project Coordinator: Ian Dennis – under contract No 2001.363.00001. The author was Cécile Brousse of INSEE. The translation of the original report from French into English was carried out by the European Commission Translation Service and the Project Coordinator. Eurostat would like to thank the many contributors, including national statistics institutes and other national authorities that provided information. Warning about the data The data on which this publication is based are drawn from a number of different sources and are therefore not necessarily comparable. 1 It is important to remember that the homeless (like other vulnerable groups in the population such as communal and institutionalised households) are normally excluded from traditional surveys. The information available comes from several sources, including surveys of service providers, housing waiting lists, etc. 2 See Eurostat (1994), Poverty statistics in the late 1980s: research based on micro-data, Statistical Document, Luxembourg; Eurostat (2000), European Social Statistics: Income, poverty & social exclusion, Detailed Tables, Luxembourg; Eurostat (2002), The methodology of calculation of the Laeken indicators of monetary poverty, Explanatory text, New Cronos Theme 3, Domain ILC, Luxembourg; Eurostat (2003), European Social Statistics: Income, poverty & social exclusion 2nd report, Detailed Tables, Luxembourg. HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING DEPRIVATION Executive summary3 Housing deprivation and homelessness is perhaps the most extreme example of poverty and social exclusion in society today, both as a symptom and as a cause. Despite the current absence of a formal EU mandate on housing, as attempts to improve social cohesion have moved higher up the European political agenda, homelessness and housing deprivation is now recognised as a subject of specific interest. The Indicators Sub-Group (ISG) of the Social Protection Committee has flagged this subject as an area which it wants to review within the Open Method of Coordination on Social Inclusion in its periodic progress reports since Autumn 2001. With enlargement, the issue may become even more pressing. However, so far there are few official statistics on homelessness and housing deprivation (countries like France are the exception rather than the rule), and these are rarely comparable. To address this lack, Eurostat convened a group of experts and financed a comprehensive feasibility report by INSEE. Participants were selected on the basis of their organisations’ experience in the domain and included representatives of several national statistical institutes and non-governmental organisations. The group had a mandate to review the current availability of such statistics in the EU and elsewhere; to review existing data collection methodologies and if possible, propose a harmonised methodology for the future; to propose suitable indicators to assist the work of the ISG. Overview of the project The Expert Group has now met three times: in December 2001, March 2002 and March 2004 (postponed from Autumn 2003). Full details of the discussions and background documentation can be found on the CIRCA website: http://forum.europa.eu.int/Members/irc/dsis/soipase/home …“Library” ……“Methodology” ………“Research proposals” …………“Expert group homelessness” Following the second meeting, which established an initial draft definition of homelessness and housing deprivation, Eurostat/INSEE developed a three-part questionnaire after a wide consultation process which included extended contacts with FEANTSA4. The questionnaires were launched in January 2003 to 300 target respondents, of whom over half replied. Member State NSIs were urged to collaborate during a presentation at the Eurostat Working Party on Income Poverty & Social Exclusion Statistics. The FEANTSA secretariat encouraged their member organisations to participate. The questionnaires (annex 11) covered definitions and concepts of homelessness and housing deprivation, types of networks and organisation structures of services dealing with persons experiencing homelessness and housing deprivation, and methodologies employed in producing statistics on housing deprivation and homelessness. After analysing the replies and undertaking a review of relevant international literature, INSEE delivered a draft synthesis report to Eurostat in Autumn 2003 which was sent for translation. This report was extensively discussed at the final meeting of the Expert Group in March 2004 and various modifications were proposed. Also in March 2004, a detailed presentation of the draft report was made to the Indicators Sub-Group, together with a draft set of conclusions and recommendations for action upon which members were invited to send comments after the meeting. Additional efforts were made by INSEE to obtain details of relevant programmes. Where appropriate all these various reactions have been introduced in the text of the report5. Significant content and editing improvements have been included since the earlier draft. The report highlights the various obstacles to a pan-European comparison, discusses the definition(s) of homelessness and housing deprivation and reviews systems for data collection, supporting the analysis with extensive appendices. It concludes with a series of concrete proposals. The finalised report is considered to make an important contribution to the progress of efforts to gauge the scale and extent of homelessness and housing deprivation in a European context. 3 This overview was drafted by the Eurostat project coordinator following receipt of the final report. For additional summary perspectives, see also the Introduction and Part 4 of the main text, and Annex 12. 4 Fédération Européenne d’Associations Nationales Travaillant avec les Sans-Abris (= European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless). 5 Reasons for non-inclusion of certain observations made by FEANTSA can be found in Annex 9. 5 HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING DEPRIVATION Parallel developments This initiative has not been taking place in a vacuum. Other more or less related activities include for example, the UN-Habitat ‘urban indicators’ and ‘housing rights indicators’ initiatives; the DG.REGIO ‘urban audit 2’ project6; the DG.RECH-financed Eurohome Impact final report 2003 (and Eurohome report 2001); the 2003 National Action Plans and subsequent Joint Inclusion Report7; the annual Informal Meeting of European Housing Ministers, and associated annual reporting8 and database initiatives; the 2003 elaboration of a FEANTSA policy document and launching of an annual statistical publication; various actions at Member State level. For practical reasons the scope of the report did not include a review of all such initiatives and only takes into account certain elements of the work by FEANTSA and in National Action Plans. Notably,