WHO IS THE CITY FOR?

Homeless in Europe Magazine Winter 2024

Read the magazine here (online PDF)

From the Paris Olympics, summer tourism, and mega-pop star concerts, this edition of the FEANTSA Homeless in Europe Magazine was born from a reflection on the impact of various mega events and tourism on housing and homelessness throughout 2024. In multiple cities throughout Europe, we saw the repeated penalisation and displacement of those experiencing homelessness, evictions, and the augmentation of house prices, in the name of mega-events and tourism.

We see cities as the intersection of our private and political lives. Centres of commerce, culture, and opportunity, as well as life, family, and home. It is logical, therefore, that tensions begin to rise. Tensions of interest and priority. Tensions that lead us to question how we can carve out liveable spaces in the city? How can local governments balance financial and commercial interests with the personal interests of those who exist each and every day within these spaces? Who decides who gets to exist in these spaces? Ultimately, who is the city for?

Furthermore, these questions are increasingly important within the context of homelessness. To ignore the significance of public space is to ignore the lived realities of over one million people in Europe. These tensions are most acutely felt by those without secure housing, for whom public spaces are not just shared areas but a necessity. And yet, from legislation to physical barriers, people experiencing homelessness are having their rights to exist in the public increasingly limited.

This issue centres on the questions and debates surrounding cities and public spaces, and the impact on homelessness and housing. From mega-events to hostile architecture, contributions cover a variety of topics around the issue of the public: who has the right to exist in public spaces? What is the value of the public and how can we protect it? How, and to whom, is the public limited?

Articles:

Editorial: Who Is the City For? - Bryony Martin, communications officer, FEANTSA

The Olympic Fight for Unhoused and Precarious People Against Paris 2024’s Social Cleansing - Paul Alauzy, project manager at Doctors of the World and spokesperson for Le Revers de la Médaille, France

Both Spectacular and Structural: Reflections on Mega Events and Mass Displacements - Maria Persdotter, senior lecturer in Social Work, Linköping University, Sweden

The Pressure on People Living on the Streets in Barcelona Grows - Mariana Cantero, Communication and Political Incidence Department, Arrels Foundation, Spain

The Pics d’Or: Awarding Hostility in Urban Design - Bryony Martin, communications officer, FEANTSA

The ‘Exclusionary City’ Goes Unnoticed by Most People - Kirsten Skovlund Asmussen, communications and disseminations officer, Projekt Udenfor and Pia Justesen, PhD and human rights lawyer, CREATE Aalborg University, Denmark

Johnson v. Grants Pass: A Major Setback, But Not the Last Word in Criminalization of Homelessness in the U.S. - Eric Tars, senior policy director, National Homelessness Law Centre

FREE54: Grassroots Organising for Public Space in Brussels - Interview with a member of the Free54 collective