Homeless on the doorstep of EU

I am sitting on a colourful chair in the square by the European Parliament. It’s a sunny day in the middle of the election campaign, and across the square sits a huge billboard urging people to vote.

“Welcome to my home,” says a man suddenly. I have just knelt down to pet his lovely dog, Maria. I think, of course, that he means that I should feel welcome in Brussels, the capital of the EU, but after a while, the penny drops, and it’s clear to me that the Parliament is actually his residence.

A few months later, in connection with the new EU Commission to be approved by the Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the EU Commission, highlighted in her speech that housing is an important issue for voters. By appointing Dan Jørgensen as housing commissioner, she perhaps wanted to show Parliament that she considers the issue to be urgent. When the newly elected parliamentarians questioned him, ahead of approval, he in turn said in his opening remarks that an MP had told him before the election that there were three important issues: housing, housing and housing.

Most of the time I get around Brussels by bike. Sometimes, however, I ride the subway in the evening. The feeling that arises is that I am moving in some kind of dormitory. Outside the barriers and inside, people lie in rows and sleep. At each station that the train passes, a person rests on a bench or in a corner. Out on the streets, in disused arcades, in doorways, garages or on benches, someone has made a place to sleep. In the parks, if I look into the thickets, I can see tents or small huts, where someone probably lives or has lived.

The day after the hearing of the new housing commissioner, Laetitia Delande, from Bruss’Help, is interviewed by BX1. She says that the non-profit association, together with other social organisations in Brussels, will now count the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city. At the last census in 2022, the number was more than 7,100. Now, the association fears that number may have increased to 10,000.

In 2020, the EU Parliament reacted to the fact that homelessness in Europe has increased by 70 per cent in the last 10 years. “Homelessness is one of the most difficult forms of poverty and deprivation and must be eliminated through targeted and multifaceted policies,” parliamentarians wrote in their resolution.

Member States are asked to eliminate homelessness by 2030. 647 of the members agreed to call for the decriminalisation of homelessness and equal access to public services such as healthcare, education and social support for people experiencing homelessness, and to enshrine housing a human right. 13 members voted against the resolution, including three members of far-right party Sweden Democrats. 32 abstained.

Also in 2020, Eva Franzén and Hans Swärd wrote in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that, despite making the right sounds about the right to housing, Sweden has the worst track record on homelessness of the Nordic countries. They had been commissioned by the then Swedish government to devise proposals for solutions. “Homelessness is not an insoluble problem; with a strong political will, it can actually be reduced,” they said.

Dan Jørgensen saw no possibility of eliminating homelessness before 2030 but said that there were things that could be done to create affordable housing. “One million homeless people in the EU is completely unacceptable,” he said.

I haven’t seen Maria or her owner again. Maybe he has another home now. But other people now live outside the Parliament. By their mere existence, they are a constant reminder to parliamentarians to continue their work to end homelessness.

On 1 December, the new Commission took office, and has promised to tackle the housing crisis within the EU. Until that time, I am reminded every time I am outside Parliament that the doorstep has become someone’s home.

Translated from Swedish via Translators Without Borders

Courtesy of Faktum / INSP.ngo