Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL)

A Place To Call Home: With young people struggling to break into the housing market, an increasing number turn to private rentals where they face soaring prices and an insecure market filled with inadequacy problems, such as noise pollution and poor energy efficiency. Considering that those at risk of living in poverty are disproportionately affected, how can the EU ensure that young people have access to affordable, secure, and adequate housing?

Submitted by: Lina Assalhi (NL), Hendrik Cotterell (NL), Ramin Hamidi (NL), Sadik Kulaksiz (NL), Marein Oosterveld (NL), Husnia Talim (NL), Chrisje Ziekman (NL), Jayson Zwezereijn (NL). Chaired by: Júlia Peña (ES).

The European Youth Parliament,

1. Considering that the absence of binding EU legislation on social housing results in diverse approaches to its provision,
2. Acknowledging the varying capacity of rent subsidies ¹among Member States,
3. Taking into account that the intensified competition for affordable housing in major cities with an appeal to national and international students and tourists leads to an increased demand for rental accommodation,
4. Regretting the existence of 38 million vacant dwellings across Europe,
5. Deeply alarmed by the scarcity of social housing ² and rising rent prices exacerbating the fact that young people constitute 20-30% of the total homeless population in the EU, 
6. Recognising the prevalence of under-occupied dwellings³ in the EU,
7. Gravely concerned that a third of young Europeans aged 19-25 live in poverty, with 40.8% of the same group experiencing housing cost overburden⁴,
8. Noting with deep concern that 6% of young people in the EU reside in substandard dwellings lacking essential amenities and 28% in overcrowded accommodations⁵;

The committee

1. Calls upon the Committee of the Regions to create a strategic and unified legal plan that Member States can adapt to their unique circumstances;
2. Further asks the Committee of the Regions to incentivise increased rent subsidies to vulnerable groups by:
   • raising awareness about their benefits among Member States,
   • promoting coherence and equity in their distribution;
3. Invites the Global Shelter Cluster to analyse the rental market and suggest rental caps based on inflation and income growth;
4. Seeks that the Abbé Pierre Foundation to increase the availability of social housing by encouraging the renovation of vacant dwellings and repurposing them as social housing;
5. Suggests the International Labour Organisation to tackle youth poverty by facilitating job creation initiatives and promoting stable employment programs;
6. Hopes Member States to ensure adequate housing conditions by:
   • enforcing regulations on access to daylight and basic amenities, 
   • providing financial assistance to combat energy efficiency,
   • following the principles stated in the European Pillar of Social Rights.⁶

1.  Rent subsidies are a form of financial aid provided to individuals or households to make housing more affordable. ↩︎
2. Social housing is accommodation targeted at people who can not afford to rent or buy a home, and is usually built with the support of government funding. ↩︎
3. Under-occupied dwelling is housing that is deemed to be too large for the amount of people living in it, usually in terms of excess rooms.
   
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4. Housing cost overburden occurs when the total housing costs (rent, energy, taxes, etc.) exceed 40% of the total disposable housing income. ↩︎
5.  Overcrowded accommodation refers to a household that does not have at its disposal a minimum number of rooms equal to one room for every single person aged 18 or more. ↩︎
6. The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) is a set of 20 principles and rights that aim to strengthen the social dimension of the EU and encourage Member States to update their social and employment standards and laws. ↩︎