Pledge 26 – Hamburg

On 15 October 2019, The City of Hamburg became the twenty-sixth city to sign a pledge to the EU Pillar of Social Rights. The Senator, Dr. Melanie Leonhard, signed a strong pledge to principle 11 on childcare and support to children and principle 19 on housing and assistance for homeless.

On principle 11, Hamburg is committed to enable all children access to education and to improve their opportunities for development from an early age by:

• Being entitled to the legal right of five hours of free day care.
• Building 100 additional day care centers in 2019 and 2020 for one billion euros. The number of pedagogical staff numbers is expected to grow by around 2 750 by 2024.
• Expanding the number of parent-child centers up to 50 in 2019 and 2020 providing advices and support before and after the birth. 1 600 intensive and 4 000 short-term counselling sessions to parents would be provided.

Hamburg is also committed to provide homeless people with accommodation and to encourage their social inclusion in society by:

• Setting up measures for preventing housing loss and for integration.
• Providing public shelters and assistance for shelterless, homeless and socially disadvantaged people.
• Ensuring placement in and creation of housing and especially for young homeless people aged 18-25. The Young Adult programme (€1,3 billion in 2019) allocates them a temporary place in a special accommodation and provides them with advices and support through intensive socio-pedagogical counselling as well as encourages school education, apprenticeship or employment.

The Senator of the city, Dr Melanie Leonhard stated “we need a Europe that ensures social equality and social protection and combats poverty, exclusion and discrimination. Hamburg being at the heart of Europe also aims to become a city of opportunities for all”. Read the full pledge below.