A well-regulated market capable of providing affordable housing to all is urgently required

My Plenary speech on the debate on EU Strategy to assist young people facing the housing and cost of living crisis:

Even though housing is a human right, the number of young people  struggling to find and to afford a place they can call their home is rising every day in all our 27 Member States!

Also too many young people are experiencing homelessness and as a consequence they will suffer from high rates of chronic health conditions, mental and substance use disorders.

Bad housing conditions and homelessness is even worse for children, because it puts them at risk for emotional and behavioural problems, which affects their school success.

Let me also recall the worrying rise of LGBTI youth homelessness.

Intersectional discrimination, lack of tolerance and racism are linked to the housing crisis.

Deepening our Union of Equality also means fighting discrimination and inequalities in the housing markets and this will benefits young people and students!

And I am glad that yesterday with the Spanish presidency we concluded the deepening and the strengthening of the equality bodies. Because this is also fighting against discrimination on the housing market.

We must solve this housing crisis, and therefore we call for an integrated EU strategy that creates a favourable framework for local, regional and national authorities.

To guarantee housing for all, the Socialists and Democrats support a number of progressive policies such as rental price control measures, the exclusion of social spending from fiscal policies, the revision of the housing cost overburden rate and rules to avoid that student- and other apartments are used for tourist purposes.

And therefore, we support the Commission’s regulation to regulate short term rentals.

The rampant housing crisis is also a market failure. Housing has become an object of speculation to a level where local residents can no longer find and afford housing.

A well-regulated market capable of providing affordable housing to all is urgently required.

Public housing policy should be excluded from competition and state aid rules, thereby allowing governments to design a strong public housing policy.

Everybody deserves a place to call home, and we must deliver it.