Welfare Reform on the Web (April 2004): Homelessness - Overseas

ACCESS TO HOUSING: HOMELESSNESS AND VULNERABILITY IN EUROPE

B. Edgar, J. Doherty and H. Meert

Bristol: Policy Press, 2004

While there is no overall shortage of housing in the European Union, 3 million people are homeless and 18 million are housed in inadequate accommodation. This book presents a detailed analysis of the European housing market in both the private and state spheres and identifies the institutional changes and policy prescriptions that are necessary to manage the demands of homelessness and inadequate housing among Europe's most vulnerable people. The following themes are explored:

• the expansion of an increasingly unregulated private market;
• the contraction of the state sector;
• the (re)emergence of voluntary organisations;
• the role of vulnerable people themselves.