No One Left Behind by the European Youth Strategy… Except Homeless Youth?
The European Commission has published its plans this week for a European Youth Strategy from 2019-2026. FEANTSA is deeply concerned that the Commission’s proposal offers no framework to ensure that homeless youth and young people facing housing exclusion and housing deprivation will not be left behind.
In recent weeks, FEANTSA has raised concerns that the European Commission is actively ignoring the needs of a growing population of young people experiencing or facing homelessness. The Commission has deleted ‘homelessness, housing and poverty’ as a priority issue from the current European Youth Strategy website, and their recent Communication on a future European Youth Strategy lacks any clear direction around how to support vulnerable youth.
With homelessness continuing to rise in every EU Member State except for Finland, it is a crisis that is increasingly affecting young people. In France, 33% of people in homeless accommodation are under the age of 18, in Ireland there has been a 78% increase in homelessness among 18-24 year olds, and in Denmark there has been an 85% increase in the same age category.
FEANTSA is calling on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the wider social sector and NGOs to carefully re-consider the proposals put forth by the European Commission and ask if this is the best we can do for vulnerable youth at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness.
