” “Feantsa (European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless) made an appeal to politicians to include in the EU targets the eradication of the phenomenon of homeless people by 2010. The Federation asks politicians, “in dealing with this phenomenon which is a clear breach of human rights to focus mainly on their social reintegration”. In particular, Feantsa asks for “access to a range of supporting services, such as a home, a job and social assistance, although a job alone is not the solution”. According to the Federation, “there is shared and new awareness that obtaining a respectable and affordable home is the key to reintegration”. But many European countries, reports Feantsa, “have not yet developed services that can successfully meet the special needs of the homeless”. “Lsiving on the streets it highlights is not a free choice, but the result of a number of individual and structural factors”: the former include “problems of mental health, serious addictions or criminal offences”; the latter include “soaring house prices and high unemployment rates”.
