Cities, Housing Exclusion and Homelessness from A European Perspective

TY - CHAP

T1 - Cities, Housing Exclusion and Homelessness from A European Perspective

AU - Pleace, Nicholas

PY - 2023/1/1

Y1 - 2023/1/1

N2 - This chapter explores the experience of housing precarity and homelessness in European cities. The discussion explores the concepts of homelessness and housing exclusion in the European context, including the nature and extent of informal and unregulated settlement by people living in cities and their experiences. The chapter employs the experience of COVID-19, in which some European cities extended their usual definitions of populations who could at least be temporarily accommodated via governmental assistance, to illustrate how the often complex and extensive social protection and, to varying degrees, social housing systems of European urban space, construct and reconstruct what it means to be defined as ‘homeless’. The main argument is that homelessness and housing exclusion both shift significantly in their nature and extent in relation to the level, focus and resources of European social protection systems. Europe contains urban spaces in which informal/unregulated settlements, living rough and marginalised, street using populations are, if not extremely numerous, certainly visible on a routine basis. There are also European cities in which homelessness in these forms is unusual and more likely to be quickly addressed when they occur.

AB - This chapter explores the experience of housing precarity and homelessness in European cities. The discussion explores the concepts of homelessness and housing exclusion in the European context, including the nature and extent of informal and unregulated settlement by people living in cities and their experiences. The chapter employs the experience of COVID-19, in which some European cities extended their usual definitions of populations who could at least be temporarily accommodated via governmental assistance, to illustrate how the often complex and extensive social protection and, to varying degrees, social housing systems of European urban space, construct and reconstruct what it means to be defined as ‘homeless’. The main argument is that homelessness and housing exclusion both shift significantly in their nature and extent in relation to the level, focus and resources of European social protection systems. Europe contains urban spaces in which informal/unregulated settlements, living rough and marginalised, street using populations are, if not extremely numerous, certainly visible on a routine basis. There are also European cities in which homelessness in these forms is unusual and more likely to be quickly addressed when they occur.

KW - Soft and hard cities

KW - homelessness

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781032440378

SP - 46

EP - 59

BT - Negotiating Resilience with Hard and Soft City.

A2 - Singh, Binti

A2 - Berger, Tania

A2 - Parmar, Manoj

PB - Routledge

ER -