Across Europe, cities are grappling with an intensifying housing crisis that affects a wide spectrum of urban residents, from the most vulnerable to essential workers and middle-income earners.

This handbook presents a wide range of practical approaches addressing key housing challenges, highlighting strategies that combine affordability, social inclusion, and sustainability. The case studies focus on supporting vulnerable populations such as the elderly, single-parent families, and low-income homeowners, as well as essential workers and people experiencing homelessness.

The mayors call on the EU to establish an emergency financing stream to enable cities to tackle the lack of social and affordable housing supply, thereby recognising cities as key partners in implementing EU housing-related initiatives. The mayors also request the creation of fast-track EU funding for cities to accelerate the deployment of EU-funded programmes on the ground, reform State Aid rules to boost public investment in social and affordable housing, and activate national escape clause to enable greater investment in sustainable social and affordable housing.

At the recent Eurocities Social Affairs Forum in Amsterdam, politicians, city officials, and EU policymakers gathered to ask the hard questions: How can cities remain engines of equity and innovation in the face of ageing and economic disruption? What does it mean to design urban life that ensures the dignity of older adults, a fair future for younger generations and inclusive opportunities for new arrivals?

The forum may not have all the answers, but it achieved a common agreement on the ‘how’ – putting people at the forefront.

How are cities adapting to profound demographic shifts, including population ageing, migration, and evolving family structures?

This piece highlights the need for inclusive policies that promote intergenerational justice, support migrant integration, and address the disproportionate caregiving burdens on women. It emphasises the importance of co-creating strategies to ensure equitable and resilient urban environments for all residents.

This year’s Social Affairs Forum focuses on how cities can mitigate demographic change. It will address the challenges cities face in areas like housing, labour markets, and social cohesion as populations evolve.

The forum will explore urban transitions in ageing, labour, and intergenerational justice, drawing from Amsterdam’s experience. Through keynotes, workshops, and site visits, attendees will learn how cities can build resilient, inclusive communities with innovative policies and practices for the future.

Eurocities, in collaboration with the Housing First Europe Hub, has launched the podcast “Let’s Start with a Home”.

The podcast explores the Housing First model, featuring voices of people with lived experience of homelessness. It highlights strategies, challenges, and the ambition to make decent housing a reality for all by scaling and implementing Housing First in cities across Europe.

Eurocities has released a policy report titled “A New Urban Compass for the European Pillar of Social Rights and its Renewed Action Plan”, advocating for a stronger urban dimension in EU social policy.

The report calls for integrating territorial impact assessments, addressing urban poverty and housing crises, and enhancing cities’ involvement in initiatives like the Child Guarantee. It emphasises the need for a place-based approach to ensure inclusive and equitable social outcomes across Europe.

At the third Eurocities Social Summit, mayors called on the EU to prioritize social issues like affordable housing and inclusive services. They emphasized the need for greater involvement in shaping the European Pillar of Social Rights and direct access to EU funding.

The cities also highlighted that investing in people is crucial for Europe’s future, with over €15 billion already invested in social initiatives.

In the Housing First model, housing provision is combined with intensive but voluntary support to ensure an individualised approach to exit homelessness. Across the world, many Housing First programmes have demonstrated a success rate of over 80%.

This report explains how Brno, Glasgow, Lisbon, Lyon Metropole, and Vantaa implemented this model. Also available in French here.

This year, Lodz, Leipzig, Madrid, Essen, Chemnitz, Katowice and Hanover pledged to the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Do you want to join our campaign in 2025? We’re 3 pledges away from achieving 100! Find out how your city can get involved and make a pledge by clicking on ‘More info’.

This report is part of a Eurocities series on the European Pillar of Social Rights, with a focus on mental health (Principle 16: Access to Health).
It highlights how cities are creating policies and services that not only target mental health but also address the social factors, such as housing, employment, and social inclusion, that heavily impact citizens’ well-being. The report underlines the need for a city-wide approach, where mental health is integrated into all areas of urban policy, from transport and urban design to culture, environment and social services.

The Social Innovation Lab held in Torino last September brought together city leaders and experts from across Europe to address the urgent issue of housing affordability. As housing costs continue to outpace income growth, vulnerable groups, including low-income households, young workers, and students, are struggling to secure affordable housing. Besides learning from Torino’s experience, the event provided participants with a platform to discuss shared challenges, exchange best practices, and co-develop strategies for affordable housing.

A delegation of mayors travelled to Strasbourg to meet MEPs. Eurocities President, Burkhard Jung; and Mayor Barseghian signed a call, on behalf of all other Eurocities mayors, for 10 priority actions to be achieved in this EU mandate, including housing. “The many significant issues now confronting our society, including the rise of populism, the housing crisis, and the impacts of climate change, require EU-level solutions that are implemented at the local level,” said Burkhard Jung, President of Eurocities and Mayor of Leipzig.

This is a comprehensive look at how European cities foster inclusion and integrate migrants into their communities. The report highlights the pivotal role of local governments as policymakers, service providers, and employers in shaping local solutions to global challenges, innovative practices from cities around Europe that demonstrate how they improve housing, employment, education, and social inclusion for migrant communities, and includes key recommendations for empowering cities to collaborate with national and EU institutions, ensuring that resources and strategies effectively address local needs.

Cities across Europe are grappling with a worsening housing crisis driven by a shortage of affordable homes, the rising cost of living, and the proliferation of short-term rentals. This situation is particularly dire for low- and middle-income families. The issue extends beyond mere housing availability. Vulnerable groups face heightened risks of energy poverty due to inadequate housing conditions, including lack of space, poor insulation, and limited access to green areas and public transport.

Carsten Beck is an economist working at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Copenhagen that analyses trends and foresight processes.

“Being a futurist doesn’t mean we can predict the future, but it’s crucial to have conversations about where citizens, societies, markets or companies might end up,” explains Beck. “This helps in strategic planning and avoids being caught off guard.”

Ricardo Rio, Mayor of Braga, represented Eurocities at the high-level conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights hosted by the Belgian Presidency in La Hulpe (Belgium). The presence of Rio underscores the crucial importance of the Pillar and our continued commitment to fostering inclusive urban communities across Europe.

Read the full article here.

According to Eurostat, one-third of Europeans reside in rental properties. However, rent prices are frequently unmanageable. As the declaration states, the average rents in the EU were almost a quarter higher at the end of 2023 than at the start of 2010, and the average cost of a house in the EU was nearly 50% higher in mid-2023 than at the same time in 2010, according to the European Union.

Read the article here.

Across Europe, many people in cities are facing significant daily challenges, including access to affordable housing and essential public services, securing a job that offers a decent salary, paying energy bills and putting healthy food on the table. City governments recognise that human rights are a key part of the foundation for a united Europe, and they are committed to increasing efforts for a fairer and sustainable future.

We welcomed ten new Social Heroes in 2023: Brussels, Dusseldorf, Kadikoy, Munich, Nuremberg, Oslo, Paris, Riga, Stockholm and Zurich. But how does the EU value local engagement in the Pillar’s principles? We have spoken with Katarina Ivanković-Knežević, Director of Social Rights and Inclusion at the European Commission, about the European Pillar of Social Rights and cities’ role in its implementation.

Annette Christie, Councillor of the City of Glasgow and Chair of the Eurocities Social Affairs Forum promotes Eurocities ‘Ending youth homelessness’ report.

Throughout Europe, the number of young people experiencing homelessness is on the rise. Data from the 29 cities that contributed to this report demonstrates that the crises Europe has faced in recent years have worsened pre-existing challenges. Even more worrying, cities anticipate this increase will continue in the coming months.

Ambitious action needs to be taken to curb this trend and work towards ending youth homelessness by 2030. Cities are committed to taking action, but they cannot do it alone.

Eurocities supports cities to work on gender equality by sharing knowledge and good practices, learning from one another through peer learning, policy transfer and critical friend reviews, and building the capacity to follow and implement the European strategy on gender equality.

This work is done in the framework of Eurocities initiative to support cities in implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights, principle 2 on gender equality.

This mutual learning event brought together Working Group Employment and others from across Eurocities’ network to critically engage with the challenges vulnerable women with migrant and refugee backgrounds face when trying to reach and thrive in the labour market.

As the Eurocities campaign “Inclusive Cities for All” shows, cities are allies of the European Commission in pushing the European Pillar of Social Rights forward. We have done so through the Eurocities campaign to engage mayors and deputy mayors to pledge to implement the Pillar by taking tangible measures backed by specific budget allocations.

The level of municipal responsibility in providing early childhood education and care services varies depending on the organisation of the education system and governance structure. Many factors play a role in childcare participation: the length of family leave, availability of services, cost of ECEC, legal entitlements, family employment situation, as well as the sociocultural context of each city.

Investment in digital skills has become fundamental considering the digital revolution unfolding globally. Cities are crucial actors in addressing the most critical challenges related to skills at the local level. They make a difference in co-designing and implementing EU policies in this field in an impactful way.