Analysis and guidelines to guarantee the right to housing
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 2 October 2025
(35th sitting) (see Doc. 16244,
report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable
Development, rapporteur: Ms Aurora Floridia; and Doc. 16268, opinion
of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, rapporteur:
Mr Paul Galles). Text adopted by the
Assembly on 2 October 2025 (35th sitting).
1. The right to adequate housing is
a universal human right recognised in international human rights
law, including the European Social Charter (revised) (ETS No. 163).
It stems from everyone’s right to an adequate standard of living
and is key to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural
rights within the international human rights framework, on a similar
footing with civil and political rights. Adequate housing means
the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity – in
a home that is safe, healthy, affordable, accessible and adapted
to needs, with safe drinking water and sanitation and energy facilities.
Ensuring the right to housing for all is not only a legal obligation
but a cornerstone of social justice and human development, and thereby
of democratic stability.
2. As human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent
and interrelated, a violation of the right to adequate housing may
affect the enjoyment of a wide range of other human rights. At the
same time, the right to adequate housing may also be affected by
the extent to which other human rights are guaranteed. While the right
to adequate housing is central to human well-being, it remains a
broken promise for more than one billion people worldwide who are
not adequately housed. In Europe, over 1.3 million people were homeless
in 2023, including 400 000 children, and about 19.2 million experienced
severe housing precariousness.
3. Wars and armed conflicts escalate the housing problem for
affected populations, as in Ukraine, where about 13% of housing
has been severely damaged or destroyed. The Parliamentary Assembly
notes that, in light of the deliberate mass destruction of homes
in war zones – notably the catastrophic humanitarian situation in
Gaza, where 92% of all residential buildings have been destroyed
or damaged – the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right
to adequate housing has called for the establishment of a new crime
– domicide – at the international level.
4. The Assembly deplores the financialisation of housing, which
is treated as a commodity rather than a human right and a social
good. It is concerned that the lack of housing supply in many cities,
rising income inequalities and unemployment, the cost-of-living
crisis and high interest rates, as well as soaring rents and housing
shortages caused by secondary residences and short-term rentals,
are putting access to adequate housing under pressure across Europe.
In this context, certain categories of the population – such as
low-income and single-parent households, migrants, including refugees
and internally displaced persons, Roma, the unemployed and precarious
workers, persons leaving institutional care, students and young
people, families and older persons – are particularly vulnerable
and require special protection.
5. The Assembly underlines the obligation for member States to
ensure the effective implementation of the right to housing in line
with the requirements of international human rights law, notably
the European Social Charter (revised) (Articles 16, 30 and 31),
emphasising the prevention of homelessness and providing for holistic
short-, medium- and long-term measures. It highlights the need to
adapt existing and new housing to the modern requirements of sustainable
development and increased resilience to the effects of climate change and
natural disasters.
6. The Assembly is concerned about rising income and housing
inequalities in member States, while the social housing sector has
been outsourced to the private sector and underfinanced in many
of them. It acknowledges the pressing need to counter the financialisation
of, and speculation in, housing markets, promote affordability and
prevent homelessness. It calls on Council of Europe member States
to:
6.1 treat housing as a human
right, not as a commodity;
6.2 increase public investment in social and affordable housing,
in particular at the level of local authorities;
6.3 adopt long-term, rights-based housing strategies focused
on the prevention of homelessness. The prevention of homelessness
should also be considered when designing migration and asylum policies;
6.4 provide legal safeguards against forced evictions and
homelessness, which can be enforced in all contexts, irrespective
of the residents’ administrative status, as well as balanced protection
for both owners and tenants;
6.5 remove all administrative barriers to accessing emergency
shelters;
6.6 improve housing benefit systems, income support mechanisms
and the transmission of housing between generations;
6.7 regulate short-term rentals and vacant properties to increase
the housing supply;
6.8 implement stricter regulations to curb real estate speculation.
7. Recognising good practices in selected member States and cities,
the Assembly highlights the effectiveness of long-term public investment,
mixed-income housing, integrated social services and sustainable
construction. It invites member States to:
7.1 introduce rent regulation in urban areas with high demand
for housing and link rent increases to regional average income rather
than inflation;
7.2 promote housing co-operatives and limited-profit housing
schemes;
7.3 support young people’s access to affordable housing through
co-housing, student accommodation, targeted subsidies and intergenerational
housing facilities, and support young refugees and asylum seekers
in their transition to adulthood by extending access to adequate
housing and support services beyond the age of 18, in line with
Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member
States on supporting young refugees in transition to adulthood;
7.4 ensure access to decent housing for low-income and single-parent
households, migrants, including refugees, Roma, persons with disabilities,
the elderly, women leaving violent relationships and persons leaving
institutions;
7.5 provide information for tenants on housing rights and
financial literacy.
8. The Assembly considers that the right to housing, viewed through
the sustainability prism, blends the ecological perspective (resource
saving, climate-resilient design, low environmental footprint) with
social justice (protection of vulnerable population groups, non-discrimination,
equal opportunities for all), public health (“One Health” approach
to balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems)
and economic rationale (quality growth, shared prosperity, smart
investment and long-term gains). Considering that action is less
costly than inaction, the Assembly urges member States to:
8.1 prioritise large-scale renovation
of ageing housing stock, notably under the European Green Deal and
the Renovation Wave initiative, where appropriate;
8.2 mainstream energy-efficient, climate-resilient and low-carbon
housing models;
8.3 invest in sustainable public infrastructure and spatial
planning that integrate environmental, economic and social objectives;
8.4 facilitate access for vulnerable households to financing
for environmentally friendly housing.
9. The Assembly reminds member States of their obligations under
the European Social Charter (revised) to provide adequate housing
to all persons regularly residing on their territory, and at the
very least to provide shelter for all others. To fulfil these obligations
in practice, it urgently calls on member States to:
9.1 increase the number of available
places in reception accommodation and include contingency planning,
so that every person seeking asylum and every unaccompanied minor
can be adequately housed;
9.2 refrain from accommodating asylum seekers and unaccompanied
minors in unsuitable facilities such as (de
facto) detention sites and military facilities;
9.3 ensure independent monitoring of reception facilities,
with accessible complaint procedures, as recommended in
Resolution 2613 (2025) “The
challenges and needs of public and private actors involved in migration
management”;
9.4 support refugees leaving reception centres, people leaving
immigration detention centres and unaccompanied minors leaving care
facilities in moving into independent housing within the local community.
This support should include providing sufficient time to leave these
institutional settings;
9.5 ensure that housing support services are not required
to report persons in an irregular situation to immigration enforcement
authorities, and that information collected to support access to
adequate housing is not used for immigration control.
10. The Assembly reminds member States of their obligations under
Articles 16, 30 and 31 of the European Social Charter (revised)
and recommends:
10.1 accepting Articles 16,
30 and 31, and ratifying, accepting or approving the Additional
Protocol to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of
Collective Complaints (ETS No. 158), if they have not yet done so;
10.2 strengthening the enforcement of socio-economic rights
based on the guidance of the European Committee of Social Rights
(ECSR) and extending the implementation of social rights enshrined
in the European Social Charter (revised) to all persons residing
on their territory;
10.3 collecting disaggregated housing data to identify and
address systemic inequalities.
11. The Assembly strongly supports the work of the Council of
Europe Development Bank in helping member States deliver more sustainable,
inclusive and affordable housing for vulnerable populations, particularly
in reconstruction efforts in Ukraine and in addressing structural
housing deficits in disadvantaged urban and rural areas.
12. The Assembly encourages member States to guarantee that humanitarian
organisations and individuals providing shelter or aid to migrants
experiencing homelessness are not criminalised or faced with administrative
sanctions, including under laws to combat migrant smuggling, as
recommended in
Resolution 2568
(2024) “A shared European approach to address migrant
smuggling”.
13. Finally, the Assembly invites the national parliaments of
member States to:
13.1 monitor the
implementation of the right to housing at national and local levels;
13.2 ensure meaningful participation of youth and vulnerable
communities in housing policy design;
13.3 work towards the recognition of domicide and the establishment
of it as a crime at the international level.
