EASPD is proud to share an insightful article by Juha Kaakinen, Professor of Practice in Social Policy at Tampere University and a leading expert on homelessness and housing. As a board member of Tukena Foundation, Juha Kaakinen reinforces key messages from EASPD Position Paper: Housing as a path to inclusion and independent living.

He highlights how the lack of affordable housing continues to hinder the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities, urging that the EU Affordable Housing Plan must align with the Disability Strategy and support the European Platform on Combating Homelessness.

EASPD joins Juha Kaakinen in advocating for inclusive housing policies and cross-sectoral cooperation that reflect the diverse needs of persons with disabilities. To further this, EASPD will soon launch a study on Inclusive Housing with various perspective from across Europe to showcase good practices and inspire action!

Keep scolling to read Juha's article.

EU’s Affordable Housing Plan

Last year, the European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen made affordable housing one of the central priorities in its work programme. The aim is to create the EU’s first Affordable Housing Plan. There is broad consensus that Europe is shaken by a housing crisis. As Commission President von der Leyen remarked in September, this is a matter of human rights, fairness, and the future of all of Europe.

In its own analysis, the Commission identifies key indicators of the housing crisis as rising home prices, increasing rents, declining investment in residential construction, a collapse in building permits issued, the number of people living in overcrowded conditions, and rising homelessness.

The Commission’s preliminary analysis of areas where the EU could add value relative to the Member States reflects a delicate political balancing act between EU and national competences. In fact, based on the Commission’s list, we can expect a European strategy only in the domain of promoting housing construction. Funding has traditionally been a central EU tool to advance commonly agreed goals. The Commission is proposing the creation of a pan-European platform to promote affordable and sustainable housing. More extensive use of cohesion funds than currently, as well as increased flexibility in State Aid rules (allowing Member States to expand support for affordable housing), are concrete matters under EU authority. The Commission also seeks to assist cities and regions in reusing vacant or underutilised buildings, and in addressing problems arising from short-term rentals of housing.

The Commission has launched a broad open public dialogue to gather more ideas and viewpoints for the plan. In the first consultation round, which ended in June, the Commission received 313 responses in total. The second consultation round, ending in October, has attracted great interest; by the end of September, 1,367 submissions had already been made, over 30 % of them from Spain and Italy alone. The Commission has pledged to publish its proposal for a European plan for affordable housing in early 2026, after which it will enter political deliberation. The Commission has also appointed a 15-member expert group to advise in the plan’s preparation.

So there is a lot of hopeful energy in the air right now. Based on previous EU processes, everything is still possible, though predicting the outcome is challenging. Politically, there may be stronger opposition in EU decision-making than before, but given that housing concerns everyone, one might hope that this theme will find enough shared understanding and willpower. Next year will show whose voice in the plan’s preparation has been heard most strongly. The resulting plan might be a well‑focused, sufficiently concrete instrument to secure housing and human rights for the most vulnerable groups — or it might end up as a generic declaration offering a little good to many, which ultimately materialises only in the sharing of best practices.

A critical question will surely be how “affordability” is defined in the plan. If you ask representatives of the construction industry, their answer to affordability is typically deregulation. But if you ask groups representing Europeans suffering from a shortage of affordable housing, their answer is more likely further regulation of housing markets.

In this situation, concrete and constructive proposals and vision will be invaluable in guiding the final EU plan toward a positive result. One such is the contribution published in June by EASPD. In that context I raise a few broad observations on themes I view as central.

EASPD’s contribution reviews binding international and EU legislation concerning the rights of persons with disabilities. Briefly, one can say that the legislation is at least sufficient on paper, but implementation leaves much to be desired.

In 2020, an estimated 1.44 million people with disabilities or intellectual disabilities in Europe still lived in institutional‑type housing and care. The lack of affordable housing continues to significantly slow the deinstitutionalisation process and the full integration of persons with disabilities into society. At the same time, it is estimated that at least 1.3 million people in Europe are homeless. There is some overlap between these groups, though limited.

From an impact perspective, I believe it would be reasonable for the Affordable Housing Plan’s measures to be targeted particularly toward resolving the situations of these two groups. That way, the plan would also support the implementation of the EU’s disability strategy and EPOCH’s (European Platform on Combating Homelessness) work to end homelessness by 2030.

In fact, many of the mechanisms by which the EU can support and guide Member States’ actions to ensure affordable housing already exist. As EASPD notes in its paper, for example, the potential of SGEI (Services of General Economic Interest) legislation in housing provision and the use of services is very underutilised. This concerns both persons with disabilities and homeless persons.

As national funding weakens, EU financing becomes ever more important. The EU can help steer the allocation of this financing by imposing quotas and conditions to ensure that funds are better targeted to persons with disabilities and the homeless.

EASPD’s contribution also includes an interesting idea of direct support to individual persons with disabilities so they may arrange their housing in a way of their choosing. A similar direct financial support model has been piloted, e.g. in Canada, with excellent results among homeless persons.

The paper emphasises many times the importance of cross-sectoral cooperation. I was pleased to see the idea of more systematic use of the “Housing First” principle in arranging housing for persons with disabilities, when homelessness or institutionalisation is a risk.

Cross-sectoral cooperation is needed at many levels, but especially now when influencing the EU’s affordable housing plan and through it the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Now is the moment for collective impact.

Juha Kaakinen