Irish Regions Office Website

April 23, 2008

Ending Street Homelessness

A lack of emergency accommodation and outreach services catering for the needs of the homeless costs lives every Winter across Europe and can only be addressed effectively as part of a wider holistic strategy. That’s the key message of a European Parliament written declaration initially put forward by Mary Lou McDonald among others and adopted on April 10 which calls on the Council to agree on an EU-wide commitment to end street homelessness by 2015; on the Commission to develop a European framework definition of homelessness, gather comparable and reliable statistical data, and provide annual updates on action taken and progress made in EU Member States towards this goal; and on Member States to devise 'winter emergency plans' as part of a wider homelessness strategy. Homelessness was identified as a priority by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council in 2005, and is a priority under the 'active inclusion' strand of the EU social protection and inclusion strategy. Further information from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/writtenDecl/wdFastAdopted.do?language=EN

Posted by iroronan at April 23, 2008 08:17 PM