It aims to provide inspiration and ensure that EU funding opportunities are maximised to achieve real impact by reviewing how nine EU Funds can support investments in these fields. The toolkit also includes cases studies as well as country factsheets.
The housing crisis is present across the whole of the EU – with some Member States facing it more starkly than others- and is affecting all citizens, who struggle to find affordable and decent housing, but especially the most vulnerable people, including the Roma population. According to the data provided in this document, house purchase prices in the EU increased by 48% between 2010 and 2023, and rents rose by 23%. Households in Europe spend 40% of their disposable income on housing. In the case of Roma, we find an additional challenge: still a large number of Roma live in settlements and substandard housing.
The publication ‘Social housing and beyond – Operational toolkit on the use of EU funds for investments in social housing and associated services’, published by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, aims to contribute to promoting the right to decent and affordable housing, which is at the heart of the social Europe.
It aims to provides an overview of the types of funding available at EU level to promote social and affordable housing and accompanying services in the programming period 2021-2027. Its key objective is to provide inspiration and ensure that EU funding opportunities are maximised to achieve real impact through effective housing investments.
The toolkit reviews nine EU Funds that can support investments in social housing and associated services from 2021 to 2027, providing specific information for each one and their use in the field of social housing. For each of these instruments its particularities (general and specific objectives, examples, indicators, evaluation and monitoring, …) are shown, while encouraging synergies between them (including where relevant the combination or merging of funds) to ensure greater impact.
In addition, 20 case studies are included, which aim to show concretely the application of a person-centred approach and a place-centred approach to the provision of both housing and associated services.
In the place-centred section, they present cases of inclusive urban development and regeneration of deprived areas, and desegregation and inclusive neighbourhoods. Among the latter, the experience of the Social Housing Agency of Madrid is developed, with actions of residential desegregation and social accompaniment, which the EURoma Network had the opportunity to learn about in detail at its meeting in December 2023.
In the section that focuses on the person-centred, cases of homelessness, LGBTIQ, migrants and refugees, people with disabilities, and Roma people are described. The latter section develops the case of the re-housing of 85 families (190 people) in Murcia (Spain) with combined ESF+ and ERDF funds, and a case in Bulgaria, with an integrated approach (education, health or employment) with ESF.
The toolkit includes an annex with country factsheets, which illustrates how funding opportunities are used in regional, interregional and national programmes established through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and national plans adopted under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRF). There are examples of funds targeting Roma in several countries, such as Spain, Italy, Hungary or Romania.
The toolkit pays particular attention to the existing segregation, which as a result of a diversity of factors (including discriminatory actions and economic and demographic mechanisms) leads to the physical and social separation of members of a marginalised group from members of non-marginalised groups and unequal access to mainstream, inclusive and high-quality services, thereby sustaining or even aggravating the disadvantaged position of marginalised groups.
Several legal provisions of the cohesion policy regulations set out the framework conditions of EU funds supporting desegregation measures in education and housing. They serve as the basis for the programming and implementation of the 2021–2027 programmes targeting the needs of marginalised communities, including Roma and people with a migrant background among others. In this respect, it recalls the importance of not using EU Funds to perpetuate segregation, by applying the principle of non-segregation – which aims to prevent the investments of EU Funds from establishing new isolated facilities or strengthening existing ones- and the principle of desegregation – which aims at actively eliminating or at least significantly reducing existing isolated settings with the use of EU funds.
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