IGH Joins Efforts to Address Global Street Homelessness; RAIS Fundación Proposes Policy Change in Spain; and More

The United Nations NGO Working Group to End Homelessness (WGEH), IGH, and the International Coalition to End Homelessness propose a renewed focus on measuring and ending street homelessness worldwide. WGEH convened last month to present U.N. members with information that would support their proposal – to consider housing as a basic human need, and to explore the challenges street homelessness poses to meeting other U.N. objectives, including the 2030 New Urban Agenda. A large part of these efforts going forward will be building political will to measure the problem, explained Mark McGreevy, IGH’s co-founder and Group Chief Executive of Depaul International.

“There’s a unique role that we can play, with our data and research, as well as the wealth of knowledge from our community of partners,” says Lydia Stazen, IGH Executive Director.

Read the article here.

Read about WGEH here.

The Homelessness Monitor is an analysis of the impact of recent economic and policy developments in homelessness across the United Kingdom. It is the third annual report of an independent study, funded by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Key findings include: homelessness has become a key policy priority for the Scottish Government; the overall scale of statutory homelessness in Scotland has been relatively flat for the past five years; development of temporary accommodation has been fairly stable over the past decade; and more.

Read the report on the IGH Hub.

Depaul USA is thrilled to announce that they now own a second Dax House in Chicago, USA! It will provide housing to four additional DePaul University students experiencing homelessness or lacking secure housing. In 2014, Depaul USA established the Dax Program to address homelessness among college students in Chicago – providing housing, case management, counseling referrals, transportation, food, textbook assistance, and educational reimbursements.

Learn more here.

Figures from the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics show an increase in premature deaths among people living without shelter in England and Wales. On the Centre for Homelessness Impact‘s blog, Dr. Emily Tweed discusses ways to prevent such deaths through effective action. Dr. Tweed highlighted a key piece of the data found – one’s life circumstances profoundly shape their chances of good health. Homelessness can increase high risks of poor health which can lead to premature death. She suggests that the homelessness service sector analyze the “causes of the causes” – the larger social, economic, and political factors which shape the course of life and apply preventative measures on a larger scale.

Read the blog here.

Alberto Hidalgo Hermoso: “we want homelessness on the political and electoral agenda. That’s why we’re developing awareness and advocacy with political parties, to strengthen their commitment to solving this problem”.

As part of the European End Street Homelessness Campaign, the RAIS Fundación published proposals to improve the systems in place to address homelessness across Spain. The non-profit organization suggests that homelessness is not an individual issue but, instead, is the result of ineffective policies.

Read the article here.

This week marked the soft launch of the Global Sleep Out campaign of 2019. Social Bite, Malala Fund, UNICEF USA and IGH have collaborated to headline the initiative. The campaign aims to have 50,000 people participate in the sleep out on a given night to bring attention to and raise funding for homelessness on a global scale. co-founder of the Malala Fund, Malala Yousafzai, took part in a moderated Q&A where she shared insight from her lived experience of homelessness.

“I am excited to work with our partners – Malala Fund, UNICEF USA and the Institute for Global Homelessness – to bring this campaign to the international stage and I hope we can make a big difference to many people who don’t have a safe place to call home across the world,” said Josh Littlejohn MBE, Co-Founder of Social Bite.

Read the article here.