Ways out of homelessness Erasmus Project

Project Title

Ways out of homelessness

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The Ways out of homelessness partnership united 6 homelessness organizations from four Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania) and FEANTSA, fighting for homeless people and affordable housing solutions on a European level. While there had been several European projects and exchanges of know how and good practice in the field of housing already, the partner organizations felt the need to focus exclusively on local solutions from the Central Eastern European (CEE) region – the system, rate and availability of general social support, as well as social housing and housing subsidies in these countries differ greatly from those existing in older EU member states, creating unique challenges for both homeless people and support workers trying to help their ways out of homelessness. We did not plan to study the social context in great depth, rather decided to focus on what works and how. We were keen to learn from each other, looking at local solutions that might be adaptable in our own countries and cities.
The partnership succeeded in gathering local housing solutions for homeless people in the CEE region. This was a wise choice of area, as our region is truly different from that of the older member states. During our meetings and conversations we confirmed that the social policies of our countries are indeed very similar, and so are our problems. While there is a growing awareness of housing-led and Housing First approaches (even the European Commission has called on member states to adopt a social investment approach to homelessness, with a strong emphasis on housing-led approaches) both in Europe and globally, we have struggled to identify such projects in our countries. Unlike in many Western European countries, most local solutions here did not start from the idea of housing being a basic human right, and were in fact closer to the traditional staircase than the housing-led model. And while we have seen some initiatives trying to adapt certain elements of the Housing First approach, none of the projects visited can offer life-long support or even support as long as needed as funding is nowhere to be taken granted for such a long term. Still, in our local contexts, where there is a severe shortage of social housing and, in most countries examined, also of substantial housing allowance, the housing solutions introduced are to be considered innovative steps away from the traditional staircase system.
We managed to involve a variety of stake holders in the exchange – both in the sense of organizations (local NGOs – Casa Ioana and IUS Medicinae Foundation, umbrella organizations representing many organizations on the national (SAD) or European level (FEANTSA), one public organization (BMSZKI) and a member of a global network (Habitat for Humanity Hungary), all offering services for homeless people and training to social workers), as well as participants in the partnership meetings (field workers, service leaders, public officers, researchers, advocates and homeless service users).
Another goal of the project was to explore the various training programs that are offered to support workers working with homeless people on their way out of homelessness. We found that there were no training programs in the partner organizations, nor, according to our knowledge, in our countries, to enable support workers to help former homeless people in housing more efficiently – only training regarding technical information, but not the development of skills. So the joint curriculum we agreed to come up with is more a sketch of the needs identified of what areas a training program should contain. By locally testing the Housing First Europe Guide, a separate transnational project FEANTSA had worked on, we came to the conclusion that specific training programs would be useful, however, any materials developed elsewhere should be adapted to our local contexts and possibilities.
At this point it is difficult to state whether the project has indirectly supported people to get out of homelessness, which was one of our long-term goals. What we do know, however, is that the project created the preconditions so that member organizations can realistically improve the life of certain homeless people in our countries. Through our local, national and transnational dissemination activities (not only of the final publication, including policy recommendations, but also through all the documents collected or produced during the project) we believe we have spread the word of the necessary elements of successful supported housing programs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 80100 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fövárosi Önkormányzat Budapesti Módszertani Szociális Központ és Intézményei & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Asociatia Casa Ioana
• Sdruzeni azylovych domu v CR, o.s.
• HFH International Hungary Nonprofit Kft
• Fundacja Ius Medicinae
• FEDERATION EUROPEENNE D’ASSOCIATIONS NATIONALES TRAVAILLANT AVEC LES SANS-ABRI AISBL