PACE Committee: Urgent call to strengthen the right to housing in Europe

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Committee has issued a call for stronger action to ensure the right to housing. This occurred on September 5, 2025, during a meeting of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development. The appeal was made because more than 1.3 million people in Europe were homeless in 2023, encompassing 400,000 children, and almost 19.2 million suffered "severe housing deprivation."

The committee adopted a draft resolution based on Aurora Floridia's report, criticising the "financialisation of housing" and the mass destruction of homes in war zones. The committee also called on member states to increase public investment in inexpensive and social housing, adopt long-term rights-based methods to prevent homelessness, and offer legal defenses against forced evictions.

Furthermore, the committee urged member states to prioritise large-scale repair and remodeling of old and uninhabitable buildings, promote energy-efficient housing, and focus investments on sustainable public infrastructure. It also urged states to ensure access to housing for vulnerable groups and to work towards recognising "domicide" as an international crime in the context of widespread destruction of homes in war zones.