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.