1. FEANTSA
Presentation

2. Membership
 Fé dé ration europé enne des associations
nationales travaillant avec les sans-abri
(European Federation of National Organisations
Working with the Homeless)
 More than 100 member organisations in 25 EU
Member States and other European countries
 National and regional umbrella organisations of
service providers for homeless people
 Full/associate/corresponding members

3. Objectives
 FEANTSA works closely with the EU institutions, and has
consultative status at the Council of Europe and the United Nations.
It receives financial support from the European Commission.
 FEANTSA is committed to:
 Engaging in constant dialogue with the European institutions and
national and regional governments to promote the development and
implementation of effective measures to fight homelessness.
 Conducting and disseminating research and data collection to
promote better understanding of the nature, extent, causes of, and
solutions to, homelessness.
 Promoting and facilitating the exchange of information, experience
and good practice between FEANTSA’s member organisations and
relevant stakeholders with a view to improve policies and practices
addressing homelessness.
 Raising public awareness about the complexity of homelessness
and the multidimensional nature of the problems faced by homeless
people

4. Decision-Making structure
 Democratically organised
 General Assembly (GA)
 Administrative Council (AC)
 Executive Committee (EC)
 Finance Committee (President, treasurer,
director and finance officer)
 Secretariat (implements the work
programme)

5. General Assembly
 Is composed of all full members; other members may assist in
a consultative capacity.
 Has the following responsibilities:
 To decide the basic policy (work programmes)
 To approve the budget and accounts.
 To elect and dismiss members of the Administrative Council.
 To amend the statutes.
 To exclude members.
 To dissolve the association.
 Decisions are taken by a simple majority. The votes are
distributed on the basis of 10 votes per Member State.
 Meets 1 x per year (usually in connection with the annual
conference)

6. Administrative Council
 One representative from each EU Member State with a full
member, Meets 3 x / year
 Elected by the General Assembly for 2 years (renewable)
 Elects Executive Committee
 Reduced responsibilities (see AC document):
 Membership applications
 Adopts and develops the annual work programme and the
annual budget
 Adopts policy statements
 Establishes working groups
 Decides on personnel structure and organisation of work of
the Secretariat, dismissal of director
 Decides on internal regulations of the secretariat
 Decisions by simple majority. Consensus is strived for.

7. Executive Committee
 Elected by and of the Administrative Council for 2 years
(renewable)
 Maximum 7 members, including the President, the 2
vice-presidents, the treasurer and the secretary.
 Increased responsibilities (see AC document)
 Prepares and implements longer term strategies
 Prepares decisions of the Administrative Council
 Monitors and implements the annual work programme
 Supervises staff management
 Monitors the research of the Observatory
 Decisions are taken by majority voting, strives for
consensus
 Meets 4 x per year

8. Working Groups I
 Appointed by the AC
 Aim: Develop thematic expertise and
facilitate exchanges of good practices
 Prepare policy documents, background
documents, toolkits, databases…
 Prepare conferences
 Meet 2 x per year

9. Working Groups II
 Housing (8 members)
 Data Collection (5 members, 2 observers)
 Employment (8 members)
 Housing Rights (4 members, 2 observers)
 Health and Social Protection (8 members,
2 observers)
 Participation (9 members)
 Migration (4 members, 1-year mandate)

10. Transnational Exchange Initiatives
Public Fora
•Local authorities
•(HABITACT)
•Ministries Forum
FEANTSA
Thematic Fora
Knowledge Forum
•Health
•Research Observatory
•Housing Rights
•Data Collection
•Employment

11. Transnational Exchange Initiatives
 European Network of Homeless Health
Workers (ENHW)
 Housing Rights Watch
 HABITACT
 Informal Ministries Forum
 Employability and Homelessness Forum

12.  Set up shortly after the 2006 conference
devoted to health.
 Virtual network of about 350 contacts across
Europe, mainly health professionals working
with homeless people.
 LinkedIn Group
 Newsletter three/four times a year :
1. Exchange and mutual learning,
2. Information about available resources and
relevant events.

13.  Launched in November 2008
 Links together interdisciplinary groups of voluntary organisations,
lawyers and academics from different countries, who are committed
to promoting the right to housing for all.
 Amongst other, aims at: sharing information on relevant legislation
and case-law at different levels, monitoring the development of the
housing situation from a rights-based perspective, and supporting
change in national and European public policies with the aim of
better implementing of the right to housing.
 Currently composed of 15 national correspondents, most of them
members of Housing Rights Expert group.
 Received funding for 2010 – a person will start part-time in March.
 Conference on the right to housing in Barcelona in May 2010.

14. HABITACT
 European exchange forum on local
homeless strategies
 8 founding cities: Amsterdam, Athens,
Esch-sur-Alzette, Dublin, Ghent, Madrid,
Odense, Vitoria-Gasteiz
 12 partner cities
 5 project streams: policy exchange,
communications, project development,
partnership development, promotion

15. HABITACT
 Policy exchange:
 Peer Reviews
 Policy Bank
 Communications:
 e-bulletin
 Website www.habitact.eu
 Project development:
 Research proposal on local welfare systems and homelessness under the Seventh
Framework Programme of the European Commission
 Life Long Learning
 Partnership development:
 Extending network
 Funding opportunities
 Promotion

16. European Observatory on
Homelessness
 The European Observatory on Homelessness (EOH), set up by FEANTSA,
carries out transnational research on homelessness and housing exclusion.
 Policy-focused and academic research are an integral part of FEANTSA’s
work, a good understanding of homelessness and critical appraisal of
homelessness services are key to developing effective homelessness
strategies, preventing homelessness and promoting good practice in
homelessness services.
 FEANTSA’s statutory bodies decide on the research strategy, the annual
research programmes, and the research themes.
 Recent work by the EOH has included:
• a review on the state of knowledge on homelessness to inform the 2010
Consensus Conference on Homelessness,
• the 2011 exploration of barriers to social housing for homeless people in
the EU and
• a 2012 study exploring the enumeration of homelessness in the 2011
censuses conducted across the EU
 Once a year, the EOH organises a European Research Conference. The
EOH produces two issues of the European Journal of Homelessness and
one Comparative Study per year.

17. FEANTSA History
 September 1985 – 12 countries participated in
the first European Seminar on Poverty and
Homlessness – Cork, Ireland.
 The seminar ended with a resolution titled
Homelessness in the European Community.
 8 main recommendations including European funding
for an association of organisations working with
homeless people in the member states
 April 1989 – FEANTSA legally recognised

18. Annual Themes
 1997 – Services for Homeless People
 1998 – Support and Housing in Europe
 1999 – Women and Homelessness in Europe
 2001 – Access to Housing
 2002 – Immigration and Homelessness in
Europe
 2003 – Co-operation and Networking to fight
Homelessness
 2004 – Prevention of Homelessness

19. Annual Themes Cont’d
 2005 – Social Emergency and Crisis Intervention
in large European Cities
 2006 – Health and Homelessness
 2007 – Employment and Homelessness
 2008 – Housing and Homelessness
 2009 – Participation and Homelessness
 2010 – European Consensus Conference on
Homelessness
 2011 – Quality in Social Services from the
Perspective of Services Working with Homeless
People

20. Funding
 FEANTSA receives partial funding from
the European Commission
 The rest of the funding is made up of
membership fees, conference fees and
grants

21. Communication Tools
FEANTSA website
• Public section
• Members’ only section
• Observatory Site
Publications
• Homeless in Europe Magazine
• Flash Newsletter
• LINK (internal members’ newsletter)
Social Media
http://www.facebook.com/FEANTSA
http://www.twitter.com/feantsa http://www.linkedin.com/company/feantsa
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCduBLTqCvXo_sgbLvq37wyQ

22. More Information
 information@feantsa.org
 +32(0)2 538 66 69
 Chaussé e de Louvain 194,
1210 Brussels,
Belgium