The European Platform on Combating Homelessness, launched today by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union is “a giant leap”, the Portuguese Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security pointed out, and the beginning of a long road for the 27 to travel by 2030.

This Monday, during a High-Level Conference in Lisbon, the Member States, European institutions, social partners and civil society signed the Lisbon Declaration on the European Platform on Combating Homelessness, undertaking to adopt a set of principles to combat this phenomenon, so that:

• no one sleeps rough for lack of accessible, safe and appropriate emergency accommodation;
• no one lives in emergency or transitional accommodation longer than is required for successful move-on to a permanent housing solution;
• no one is discharged from any institution (e.g. prison, hospital, care facility) without an offer of appropriate housing;
• evictions should be prevented whenever possible and no one is evicted without assistance for an appropriate housing solution, when needed;
• no one is discriminated against due to their homelessness status.

Minister Ana Mendes Godinho stressed her “pride” in the fact that the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU had succeeded in making this platform a reality, a concrete deliverable of the Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights.

More than a goal, the platform is in itself a “starting point” so that all can be assured of the right of access to housing, healthcare or basic services and real social inclusion.

Ana Mendes Godinho argued that “it is time to deliver and to make history” to “ensure a fair economic and social recovery”, so that all can live in dignity, in equality and without discrimination.