Housing: to Overcome Unstable Situation in Europe (H:OUSE)

ongoing

H:OUSE stems from the recognition of the right to housing as an essential first step towards significant integration of people in need of international protection into host communities. It also recognizes that many successful experiences in terms of support in accessing housing come from bottom-up approaches. The project starts from these premises to explore successful Community Sponsorship experiences, at international, EU and local level, to provide a systematization of the most effective practices, which extrapolates their relevant strengths. From this, a multi-stakeholder intervention model will be developed and tested, based on the direct involvement of a wide range of public and private sponsors, drawing particularly on those segments of society that can benefit, economically and in welfare, from active engagement with newcomers; as well as on the representatives of the diaspora communities, as solid bridges between the communities of newcomers and the country of reception. This multifaceted group of target stakeholders will receive tailored training and tools to acquire the necessary skills to better engage with and support newcomers. In parallel, local authorities and stakeholders will be involved and informed on the most pressing issues affecting the migrant community, such as the knowledge and accessibility of housing solutions, but also the innovative practices developed in the field. Finally, the project will bring together all these actors in multi-stakeholder sponsorship groups, set up in the 7 project implementation territories (IT, HE, HU, IR, SL), in the collaborative planning and implementation of concrete interventions. The final result will be the creation of a network in direct support of final beneficiaries, backed by a structure solid, informed and connected at EU level, with the potential to influence decisions and promote a paradigm shift in housing policies.