Networks and cities' news

Focus on Poznan (PL): Our respons to the housing needs of the underprivileged

In Poznan, the department in charge of the realization of housing policy pursued by the Mayor and City Council is the Office of Housing Affairs. The Office's responsibilities include, among others, developing solutions, projects and programs to meet the housing needs of Poznan society. Moreover, the Office co-creates the rent policy in the city's housing resources and provides the Mayor with knowledge on the housing needs of Poznan inhabitants as well as ways of satisfying them.

As part of the City of Poznan's housing policy, housing projects are implemented to suit various needs so that each person in need of housing support can find something for themselves.

Focus on Toulouse Métropole (FR): Who are the homeless in our city? How many are they?

Friday night, 21^st January 2022. The coldest night of the week. Well equipped with several warm layers of clothes, socks, gloves, scarf and cap, I am ready to meet my new team and to discover my new urban itinerary for the homeless street count.

Focus on Glasgow (UK): Report of a peer visit

By Euan McGlynn

After two years of online video calls and back and forth emailing in the wake of the pandemic, Glasgow welcomed representatives from across the nine ROOF cities for a peer learning visit. On the 14^th and 15^th March, Glasgow set out to share with our visitors how the city is working to end homelessness across the city now, the practices we have in place to prevent homelessness as well as sharing our plan to eradicate homelessness from society. Being able to host this event in person was of huge benefit, as it was important to us not just to explain the how the actions already in place are having an impact, but to speak to those at the heart of the issue in Glasgow. This ability to connect just cannot be replicated through online communication and sets us up well for the final event in Ghent in May.

Focus on Thessaloniki (GR): testing the Housing First methodology on a small scale

Just last month, a homeless man, Kostas Pavlidis, known to most Salonicans strolling in the city center died on the streets in the center of the city amidst a rare cold wave soaring across the country. He had for a period of time stayed at the homeless shelter run by the Municipality, was known to Municipal and NGO homeless services but it was clearly not enough nor tailored to support a homeless person with multiple issues. The details of this specific case aside, the truth is that homeless shelters have not proven to be the most effective
long-term solution to homelessness and in times of crisis, so bluntly evident during the pandemic, shelters were unable to ensure protection, safety and health services to most homeless, let alone cover complex needs of individuals in a street situation.

Focus on Timisoara (RO) - How knowledge can contribute to fighting homelessness

Timisoara decided to join the ROOF network because, like in many other European cities, homelessness is more and more present and we wanted to learn new ways towards ending it. Housing First approach to end homelessness is seen as the most effective especially when working with people with complex social needs. During the transnational meetings we could see good examples of how this approach is used in more than half of the cities from the ROOF network to successfully improve the life of people and take them out of homelessness. Still Romania and Timisoara were not familiar with the Housing First approach and most of the URBACT Local Group members never heard of it. So, we decided that in order to draw an accurate and achievable Integrated Action Plan we need to use the Small-Scale Actions to gain more knowledge on Housing First approach.

Torino (IT) - Fifth ULG Meeting, March 17 2022

The fifth Urbact Local Group (ULG) of Turin took place on 17 march 2022 at Beeozanam Community Hub, via Foligno 14.