8. Vulnerable groups

A. The vulnerable are not “a few” nor are they “others”

“Vulnerable social groups” are groups of people experiencing social exclusion or discrimination because of various factors and have limited to no access to social and public goods, including housing.

During the recent multidimensional crisis, because of the implementation of austerity policies, the shrinking of the welfare state and the dismantling of social protection systems, the number of people living in poverty and social exclusion is constantly on the rise and the groups of people experiencing housing insecurity are expanding to include, among others, young people, the elderly, single-parent families, immigrants, LGBTQI people, etc.

Housing insecurity does not only include visible homelessness (homeless people sleeping rough in the streets or in homeless shelters) but also more invisible and informal forms, which have intensified during the recession. Although such situations are more common in Athens, similar phenomena of homelessness and insecure housing also occur in smaller municipalities across the country.

Homelessness and housing insecurity are often linked to a number of other aggravating factors, such as physical and mental health problems, increased stress, substance dependence, exposure to risks, etc., which have a multiplier effect, especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the disabled, minors, single parents, people experiencing discrimination, etc.

The increase in refugee movements from 2015 onwards, has brought refugee housing issues to the forefront. For the first time in the country’s recent history, organised policies for the accommodation and hosting of asylum seekers and refugees are being implemented. Said policies have of course been the subject of criticism 1, as they often categorise refugee populations according to specific vulnerability criteria, which they use in order to “allocate” people to various forms and areas of housing across the country.

In this context, regarding access to housing, we can see that alongside income and class inequalities, there’s increased housing discrimination and exclusion based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, distinct cultural characteristics, etc.

B. Housing insecurity beyond homelessness 

According to Eurostat data, during the recession years, various indicators that reflect housing insecurity and homelessness in Greece have deteriorated significantly. Notably, the risk-of-poverty and social exclusion rates were 27.7% in 2010, 36% in 2014 and are currently at 28.9%.

Regarding unemployment rates, they stood at 8% in 2008 and increased to 25.8% in 2015, while long-term unemployment rates increased from 3.7% in 2008 to 19.5% in 2014. As for material deprivation rates, they stood at 21.8% in 2008 and increased to 40.7% in 2016. Perhaps even more crucially, the housing cost overburden rates of poor households increased from 18.1% in 2010 to 45.5% in 2015.

According to the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing exclusion (ETHOS), developed by FEANTSA, homeless people aren’t just those that one sees on the streets, living rough. The concept of a home is defined by taking into account three parameters, the lack of which describes exclusion from housing: (1) Having a home means having a suitable dwelling (or space) where a person and their family have exclusive ownership (physical dimension); (2) Being able to have personal space and enjoy social relations in one’s home or space (social dimension); and (3) Having legal documents (deeds) proving that one owns a space (legal dimension).

This breakdown leads to the four main differentiations: (1) Rooflessness on the street, (2) Houselessness, (3) Insecure Housing and (4) Inadequate or Unsuitable housing, all of which indicate homelessness.

In Athens one can also detect different landscapes of homelessness that reflect its different types, such as invisible and informal, invisible and formal, visible and formal, visible and informal homelessness.

According to a study by the Labour Institute of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (INE/GSEE) (2015) the data show that in the Attica region, in 2013, households affected by invisible and informal homelessness constituted 13%-14% of the population, i.e. about 514,000 people, of which 305,000 have Greek citizenship and 209,000 are foreign nationals. These are households that do not own a home and are subject to poverty and exclusionary conditions, i.e. either their income is below the poverty line, or all adult members are unemployed or underemployed, or face housing deprivation conditions.

Since the 2000s and especially during the recession, a distinct sector of services for homeless people has started to develop in Greece (more so Athens), prevention services, emergency housing, transitional accommodation and housing and social integration including (see also HABITACT Peer review 2014).

A key problem is the lack of relevant data. A survey conducted by the Municipality of Athens in 2016 on a sample of 451 homeless people, showed that 71% ended up homeless during the past five years due to the economic crisis.

In 2018, the most recent pilot survey carried out in districts of six large Greek municipalities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Piraeus, Heraklion, N. Ionia, Ioannina and Trikala) registered 793 homeless people in the Municipality of Athens, of which 353 lived rough on the street, while the rest were living in shelters and supported apartments. In terms of the overall picture in all 6 municipalities, 49% of homeless people were living on the street for the first time. The most predominant reasons for homelessness were those related to financial problems and unemployment. When asked where they lived before becoming homeless this time, a large share replied that they used to live in their own home, an equal proportion stated they lived in rental housing and others lived in the homes of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Unfortunately, there is also a shortage of data concerning public expenditures linked to the social protection system. According to the EUROSTAT ESSPROS database, expenditure on the housing sector decreased from 0.29% in 2008 to 0.01% in 2020. These figures do not seem to include funds allocated for housing benefit after 2019, while the corresponding Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) website states that data on housing is not available.

As a result of the increased refugee flows noted in 2015, there has been some development of housing services for asylum seekers, mainly in the form of accommodation in refugee camps, while at the same time efforts are made to implement an extensive programme for the accommodation of “vulnerable” asylum seekers in rented apartments all over Greece (ESTIA I & II programme) and the provision of housing for unaccompanied minors.

Aiming at a transition to a so-called “independent living”, the HELIOS programme is also being implemented, a subsidised rental housing programme for beneficiaries of international protection that is combined with other additional integration services.

Thanks to the ESTIA programme, since November 2015, a total of almost 83,000 people have been provided with accommodation, while by the end of November 2021, 14,435 people were housed as a result of that programme, mainly from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. In terms of the HELIOS programme, so far there have been in total 16,176 beneficiaries who have received rental housing support, while at the end of December 2021, in particular, 1,839 people were able to receive assistance – most of them of the same nationalities as the ESTIA beneficiaries.

Lastly, in March 2022, the estimated number of unaccompanied minors (U.M.) was 2,079, of which: 90% Boys, 10% Girls, 7% <14 years old, 1,626 U.M. in Shelters, 283 in Supported Independent Living apartments, in Emergency accommodation facilities, 73 in Reception and Identification Centres, 19 in Open accommodation facilities.

Over the past few years, society came to realise the numerous difficulties that certain groups face when trying to access housing, due to their sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or other cultural characteristics, as well as the housing insecurity experienced by people living under the threat of domestic violence – issues that intensified during the pandemic years.

Qualitative studies focusing on the issue of LGBTQI+ people’s housing insecurity, on the one hand, highlight housing vulnerability, insecurity and exclusion paths that often lead to and/or involve homelessness, and on the other hand, a series of informal everyday life practices of mutual support and solidarity that allow people belonging in the aforementioned groups to cope with issues of housing exclusion. 2

Finally, we should also mention chronic situations of inhumane housing in camps with makeshift accommodation, lack of infrastructure and inappropriate conditions in which particularly vulnerable groups are forced to live, in addition to the refugees and asylum seekers mentioned above, such as Roma people and seasonal migrant farm/ land workers in the agricultural sector.

C. Lack of houses, lack of social policies

The causes of homelessness are linked to the precarisation of labour markets and the increase in poverty, the curtailment of welfare benefits, the distress caused by the operation of the real estate market, housing financialisation, and the impact of aggravating social factors such as migration, age, health problems, the collapse of family relationships or the insufficient support for people undergoing deinstitutionalisation (from welfare, prison, hospital and other institutions).

Historically in Greece, social policies for vulnerable groups, including the homeless, have been characterised by insufficiency, fragmentation, incoherence, lack of centrally controlled coordination, and the predominance of an operational sense of charity. 3 The aforementioned traits are also linked to the lack of a more comprehensive policy that would address access to housing, using the high rates of home ownership as an excuse.

In addition to the fact that there isn’t a comprehensive set of policies to address the vulnerable groups’ access to housing, we should also highlight the fact that said groups are invisible and absent in the public discourse. This is linked to the dominance of the family-centred model in Greece, which assigns all responsibilities regarding the support of its members to the family.

All of the above became even more apparent during the pandemic. The consecutive lockdown periods showed that “staying at home”, as a policy, is unable to protect the most vulnerable social groups. On the contrary, it highlights several inequalities and exclusions (e.g. for those experiencing housing insecurity) and for some, it may even be a threatening or dangerous condition (e.g. in cases of domestic violence, LGBTQI+ people).

Today, while housing insecurity is increasing for many individuals and households, social policies are weakened or oriented exclusively towards tackling the most publicly visible and extreme aspects of this issue.

A number of housing schemes and benefits developed in previous years remain fragmentary and with uncertain funding (especially the support schemes offered by some municipalities, which are run using mostly european funds). In the absence of a central planning and coordination public body, as well as a comprehensive framework for public intervention regarding housing, those very programmes, schemes and benefits should form the basis for an integrated and long-term housing policy.

The programmes, schemes and benefits that are being implemented in Greece at the moment are the following:

Rent subsidy: The only horizontal housing policy. The eligibility criteria are based on people’s income, property and residence location. With a total annual budget of €300 million, it targets 260,000 households and 667,000 people.

The “Housing and Work” scheme, which is an extension of the “Housing and Reintegration” programme that was launched in September 2014 and was completed in February 2019. The total budget of the programme amounts to €10 million and aims to reintegrate 600 households in the eligible municipalities across the country. It is implemented by municipalities with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The Guaranteed Minimum Income that is given to the homeless population since 2017, and reaches 273,000 low-income households in total.

Institutions/ organisations that provide services to homeless people in each (participating) municipality, such as day centres, dormitories, transitional housing and supported flats. In Athens there are 8 such centres/ facilities, in Piraeus there are 6 and in the rest of Greece there are 6 more. In addition to the above, approximately 110 buildings throughout Greece operate as cold shelters and are available for emergency accommodation, if the relevant permission is granted by the relevant Municipality and depending on the actual needs.

The ESTIA programme for the accommodation of vulnerable asylum seekers in rented apartments and the HELIOS programme that subsidises rental housing for beneficiaries of international protection in combination with other integration services.

There is significant criticism regarding the ESTIA programme, as it’s not linked to integration programmes and policies, and that combined with the fact that people’s accommodation is mandatorily terminated only a month after the asylum decision is served, without necessarily ensuring immediate access to HELIOS, certainly intensifies housing insecurity 4 and in the vast majority of cases leads beneficiaries of international protection to homelessness.

According to recent announcements, there are plans to limit and eventually terminate the ESTIA programme by the end of 2022. At the same time, the HELIOS programme only offers financial support as rent subsidies for a short period of time and the eligibility criteria it has are quite strict.

D. A comprehensive but also targeted social policy with housing at its epicentre

Addressing homelessness is the 19th key principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The EU’s main directions towards achieving this goal are: the adoption of long-term, integrated strategies to tackle homelessness at a national, regional and local level, 5 as well as the introduction of effective policies to prevent evictions, as assessed in the Social Investment Package (SIP) adopted by the European Commission in 2013.

In June 2021, the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness was launched as a joint action at a European level aiming to coordinate Member States’ interventions and utilise EU resources. The aim of the initiative is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices, to improve the available data and monitoring, and to strengthen cooperation between all actors aiming to combat homelessness.

Organisations working with homeless people are also calling for action along the same lines, sounding the alarm on how the situation regarding housing exclusion in Europe is actually worsening.

Also, a number of studies, platforms and networks for the exchange of know-how and best practices on vulnerable social groups’ housing for have been developed for the past few years.

The Housing First model, which prioritises the provision of permanent housing (rather than considering housing as the ultimate goal) is considered to be an innovative model for tackling homelessness. Indeed, the pandemic experience has reinforced the move towards direct and supported housing models, as opposed to the creation of more shelters and mass dormitories, as expressed in a relevant FEANTSA statement.

In Greece, although programmes and services for the housing of vulnerable groups have increased during the crisis, their future remains rather precarious, since they depend mainly on temporary funding such as the PA (Partnership Agreement for the Development Framework) and have not been integrated into a more comprehensive and long-term planning. The introduction of regular benefits such as the Housing Benefit and the Minimum Guaranteed Income (MGA), which can form the basis for an integrated and interconnected grid of provisions and services, is considered as a positive development.

It is crucial that Municipalities mobilise 6to address homelessness at a local level, building on their recent experience in housing specific vulnerable groups such as homeless people living on the streets, refugees and asylum seekers. Notably, the Municipality of Athens has developed important, innovative initiatives in this field, by utilising the ESTIA programme for the housing of asylum seekers as well as the pilot project Curing the Limbo for the housing of beneficiaries of international protection. This experience and know-how can be used to design and implement similar programmes for broader social groups and with a longer-term perspective.

In Greece, too, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive housing policy, with intervention axes both for the prevention of housing insecurity as well as for the rehabilitation/reintegration of vulnerable groups. Given that housing insecurity is not an issue affecting solely the homeless, it is necessary to formulate a policy that will not only target extreme forms of homelessness, but will also create an integrated inclusive protection grid for all kinds of vulnerability. This should take into account the dynamic and multifaceted nature of housing insecurity and homelessness, and address the needs and specificities of each group in a targeted manner.