Dublin: EU ministers adopted the first Council housing exclusion recommendation on 19 October 2026, setting out how member states should prevent and reduce homelessness. Irish Housing Minister James Browne presented the text on behalf of the Irish presidency at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council in Luxembourg. He called it the Council’s first recommendation dedicated to these issues.
The housing exclusion recommendation draws a clear line between two ideas. Homelessness covers sleeping rough and living in emergency shelters or temporary accommodation. Housing exclusion is wider and also includes inadequate or insecure housing, such as households facing eviction or domestic violence. The Council meeting was announced in a media advisory on 16 October.
Prevention comes first. The housing exclusion recommendation encourages member states to adopt or strengthen strategic frameworks with measurable objectives and clear deadlines. It lists debt counselling, mediation, emergency rent support and protection for households at risk of eviction as practical tools. Governments should also make social, health and support services easier to reach through one-stop access points and multidisciplinary teams.
The text backs a housing-led approach, which means giving people rapid access to adequate, safe and long-term housing with support where they need it. It also asks capitals to increase social and affordable housing through investment, renovation and better use of existing stock. Priority groups include people in vulnerable situations and young people leaving institutional or foster care.
Why does the text matter if it cannot force anyone to act? Recommendations set a shared political benchmark that governments and campaigners can cite. That yardstick matters because rents and evictions shape the cost of living across the Union.
Limits are built in. Under Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, recommendations are not legally binding. The housing exclusion recommendation does not create a right to be allocated a home, and it sets up no funding scheme. Delivery depends on the measures and resources that national, regional and local authorities choose to provide.
Follow-up will be slow by design. The Council recommends that member states report to the Commission every five years on monitoring results and progress, and it welcomed the Commission’s plan to present its own assessment five years after adoption. The Commission tabled the proposal, COM(2026) 540, on 6 May 2026 alongside the first EU Strategy to Combat Poverty. For campaigners, the housing exclusion recommendation now offers a benchmark against which to measure national governments.
