UN/ECE Workshop on Homelessness - Oslo 18-19 May 2009

Provisional programme, september 2008

Homelessness in the ECE region

The UN Declaration of Human Rights, article 25, says that everyone "...has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services". Homelessness is a severe state of deprivation of one of these basic needs.

As was adopted in the Ministerial Declaration on Social and Economic Challenges in Distressed Urban Areas in the UNECE Region in the 67. session, the failure to establish a political, economic, social and physical environment conducive to a stable and adequate standard of living for all inhabitants of a country may contribute to higher societal costs, such as urban insecurity; ethnic conflicts; problems related to migrants, refugees and displaced persons; and the increase of marginalization of groups in society and homelessness.

The composition of the homeless population in a country changes continuously. Some homeless people get access to housing, new households lose their homes. Because of this, homelessness can not solely be fought with shelters and crisis relief. Preventing new households from becoming homeless requires a comprehensive social housing policy that is able to secure adequate housing for all.

Although it will have many different manifestations, fighting homelessness is a challenge for the whole ECE region. There are no easy and rapid solutions to this challenge. Therefore we all need to exchange experiences on the homelessness situation in our countries and the keys to work on the problem.

Programme

The Norwegian Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa will open the Conference.

Three plenary sessions, each with four speakers, will focus on these main issues:

1. The extent and manifestations of homelessness in different parts of the ECE region
Due to differences in welfare systems, poverty rate, climate, etc., the extent and manifestations of Homelessness in the ECE countries is diverse. This session will focus on the number of homeless people as part of the overall population, the homeless people’s conditions of living, and the factors contributing to marginalisation and homelessness. How can the ECE countries improve their understanding of the homelessness situation in their country?

2. How homelessness is connected to social housing policy in general terms
Homelessness can be described as the outcome of shortages in the general social housing policies. It can be seen as the extreme expression of housing problems. For some, the homelessness situation is connected to other social and/or personal problems, for others it simply a question of lack of adequate housing. This session will focus on how homelessness is connected to social housing policy, and on which points social housing strategies has to be improved to be able to meet the needs of the homeless populations.

3. Policy means and strategies to prevent and fight homelessness of different manifestations, types and causes Fighting homelessness is not solely a question of finance, but also a question of developing efficient strategies and ways to work. This session will focus on how the work on homelessness can be organised and implemented within the national welfare systems.

Country report on Homelessness

A small questionnaire will be send to the Ministries of Housing in every country with an invitation to present their homelessness situation and experiences in fighting and preventing homelessness.

A summary of the presentations will be presented at the seminar.

Want to stay in Norway for another day?

Those of you who would like to come to Norway before the workshop begins, should be aware that 17th of May is the Norwegian national day with celebrations all over the country. The children have parades and people gather in the centre of their cities or villages to celebrate. In Oslo this parade is from 10 AM to 1 PM

Registration

Registration will start in January 2009.

Conference Hotel

Hotel Opera, close to the Central Station and the new Opera House.