Debate: Decent and affordable housing for all
Date: WEDNESDAY, 20 JANUARY 2021
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

Importantly, the report calls for an integrated approach to social, public and affordable housing at EU level. I very much share the objective of tackling homelessness and of supporting access to decent and affordable housing as a key factor in fighting poverty and social exclusion. We talk a lot about better wages, about minimum wages; this is extremely important. But even if I increase the minimum wage, if housing rents are increasing much more, people have not gained – they are not more prosperous; they have become even poorer. So I think the housing issue is a central issue in terms of social policy and improving the social context in all our Member States. Last year’s employment and social developments in Europe highlighted the strain that the increase in house prices over the last decade is putting on the middle class in the EU. There is a poverty trap looming because of this housing crisis for a lot of people who can no longer afford to find decent housing, and I would say housing close to their job, which, incidentally, creates other issues of transportation and CO2 emissions. Housing costs are higher in cities than in rural areas and represent a burden for more than one third of households living below the poverty threshold. In 2018, one person out of seven in the EU was living in a dwelling of poor quality. Thirty-Four million Europeans are struggling to keep their homes adequately warm in winter. And, more worryingly, homelessness trends have been on the rise over the last decade in most Member States. And I agree that we need better and more data to really understand what is happening here.  The COVID-19 crisis has worsened inequalities and people’s ability to cover housing-related expenses. The health crisis has underlined how essential a decent home is to health and well-being. It has demonstrated the vulnerability of persons, families, children, who experience homelessness and the pressing need to address this extreme form of social exclusion. As the honourable Members know, housing policies are obviously a national prerogative. But the EU has a key role to play in supporting its Member States, in helping Member States to exchange experiences – and indeed there are good and positive experiences all over Europe – on developing affordable housing, and also, in financially supporting the development of affordable housing. In the context of the COVID-19 recovery strategy, building renovation constitutes an opportunity to boost the green transition and, at the same time, employment. In particular, the renovation of social and affordable housing districts has the potential to reduce energy poverty, create local jobs and bring long—lasting benefits for communities. In this regard, local social economy enterprises can also play a key role by improving the accessibility and affordability of housing. The Commission encourages Member States to include building renovation in their recovery and resilience plans, with particular emphasis on social and affordable housing, and, in accordance with the principles introduced in the renovation wave, to establish long—term local public-private partnerships, supporting skills, digitalisation and smart technologies. Energy poverty is a strong focus of the renovation wave. The Commission has issued a recommendation to support national, regional and local efforts in tackling this issue. In addition, it will continue to support the EU Energy Poverty Observatory, which collects data, develops indicators and disseminates best practices for tackling energy poverty. The Commission will also support eradicating homelessness through Next Generation EU and the next long—term EU budget, namely under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In particular, the integrated housing——led approach will be supported by the ERDF in combination with ESF+. This approach follows the principles of Housing First, which combines immediate housing with enabling services to help previously homeless people pay their rent, promotes stable living conditions and prevents repeat homelessness. To tackle all these issues, and to help Member States – but also local authorities, municipalities and regions – address this problem of homelessness, together with the Portuguese Presidency we will organise a conference in June. It will be a broad conference bringing together all stakeholders – not only Member States, the Commission, Parliament and national parliaments, but also local authorities and NGOs – precisely to create a common platform to address the problem of housing and mainly the problem of homelessness.  There are good approaches in certain Member States and municipalities in our Union. We really have to help everybody to address this problem efficiently, with the aim of reducing drastically – if not absolutely – the question of homelessness. The future Invest-EU programme and its social and skills window will support investment in social housing and accompanying services for vulnerable groups. Homelessness and housing affordability and their social and macroeconomic implications are considered in the context of the European semester and included in the country—specific recommendations addressed to Member States. I’m looking ahead to the upcoming action plan implementing the European pillar of social rights, which will clearly emphasis this problem and we will discuss how to concretely translate principle 19 to the benefit of all those who suffer from bad housing or even the absence of housing.