Across the OECD, at least 2.6 million people are reported to be experiencing homelessness and housing exclusion, including more than 1.4 million people in the European Union, according to the latest government statistics. Statistical definitions vary across countries and cover a range of living arrangements, such as people sleeping rough, staying in emergency or temporary accommodation, living in institutions, residing in unconventional dwellings, or temporarily staying with family or friends. Significant cross-national differences in definitions and measurement approaches make it challenging to measure and compare homelessness internationally.
Homelessness
Homelessness and housing exclusion are pressing challenges in OECD and EU countries. Based on the latest data, at least 2.6 million people are experiencing homelessness and housing exclusion across 37 OECD countries. However, this is likely an underestimate, due to persistent measurement challenges. There is renewed momentum to improve the measurement and monitoring of homelessness, and to design public policies to prevent homelessness and create sustainable pathways out of homelessness.
Key messages
Developing national homelessness strategies can be a key first step to help governments define priorities, determine clear and measurable goals and the actions and resources necessary to achieve them, and bring relevant actors around the table to advance on a common objective. According to the OECD Questionnaire on Affordable and Social Housing, 24 of 44 OECD, EU and partner countries report having an active homelessness strategy in place.
Evictions from rental housing are a widespread phenomenon across the OECD, where at least 2.4 million formal eviction procedures were initiated in the latest year for which data are available. Preventing evictions, whenever possible, and providing necessary targeted assistance to people facing evictions can be an important step towards stopping homelessness before it happens.
OECD Work on Homelessness
Strengthening data collection on homelessness: The OECD Monitoring Framework to Measure Homelessness
A range of methodological challenges complicate the measurement of homelessness, making it hard for policymakers to develop evidence-based policy solutions. This paper discusses measurement challenges and aims to address them by advancing understanding, assessment and comparison of homelessness in OECD and EU countries, and proposes a self-assessment tool to help governments strengthen data collection.
Designing policies to end homelessness: The OECD Toolkit to Combat Homelessness
The Toolkit provides guidance to policymakers to prevent people from becoming homeless, support people who are experiencing homelessness, and provide effective, sustainable pathways out of homelessness. The Toolkit features nine building blocks, each of which represents a key dimension of good policy practice to combat homelessness. Together, the building blocks aim to support policymakers throughout the policy design and delivery phases.
Country Notes: Data on Homelessness and Housing Exclusion
- A - C
- D - I
- J - M
- N - R
- S - T