This week, the EEG joined a Human Rights Talk on ending child homelessness, co-organised by our member FEANTSA, Housing Rights Watch and the UN Human Rights Representation to the EU.

One message from the discussion stayed with us: We already know a great deal about what works. The challenge is implementation.

How do we make sure that housing, income support and social services actually reach children and families before they are left behind?

A research brief shared with us by another EEG member, Inclusion Europe, shows how closely this question is connected to deinstitutionalisation.

Limited Choices: Housing and support for people with intellectual disabilities finds that across Europe:
in 27 countries, few or no adults with intellectual disabilities live in their own place;
in 17 countries, most live with their families;
in 28 countries, people with intellectual disabilities are likely to move into an institution when their parents can no longer support them.

The research points to limited affordable and accessible housing, insufficient and inflexible support, financial barriers and weak monitoring as some of the structural challenges behind these figures.

For the EEG, the connection is clear: housing is not separate from deinstitutionalisation.

Preventing homelessness, preventing institutionalisation and enabling independent living all require communities where people can access adequate housing together with the support they need.

This is also why housing needs to remain part of the European conversation about deinstitutionalisation and community-based support.

Many thanks to our members FEANTSA and Inclusion Europe for continuing to bring evidence and practical perspectives into this discussion.