 As you are aware, we're going to vote this opinion beginning afternoon at 12.20 starting at 12.20. We're going to move forward in our agenda with a debate on eradicating homelessness in the European Union. With us, we have two guests. We have the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicholas Schmidt and Kjell Larson, the President of the European Federation of National Organizations, working with the homeless. Thank you both for accepting our invitation. It is a pleasure and a honor to have you. So, dear Commissioner Schmidt, President Larson, just two or three insights that I think would help us to get into this debate. This is a phenomenon that has been growing severely in the last few years. The idea we have is we have an increase of around 70% in the last 10 years. And too often there are some problems associated with this phenomenon of homelessness. People, almost people are targets of violence, of social stigmatization. Many suffer poor health, lack of food, lack of access to hygiene and healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic brought more and more challenges to deal with this situation and more and more difficulties to these people. So we have elaborated our recommendations from the Committee of the Regents for effective housing-led measures to fight homelessness in the opinion we are about to adopt, drafted by Miko Altonan, is the one representing the Committee of the Regents in the European platform on combatting homelessness launched during the Portuguese presidency, which is a unique tool to bring together all levels of governance. So European institutions, EU governments, local and regional, zotography, civil society working together in this platform is a good example of that. So rest assured that through its representation in this platform and in its steering board, the Committee of the Regents will be a valuable ally and a strong advocate for the local and regional dimension. Affordable and sustainable housing must become a priority of Europe's recovery plan to make the European pillar of social rights a reality. Without further delay, I would like to give the floor to Commissioner Nikola Schmidt. You have the floor for 10 minutes, sir. Commissioner Schmidt, are you with us? You have to press the speak button. Hello? Yeah, you hear me now? He has to be here. You're welcome. Good morning. Good morning, everybody, and good morning, dear chair and dear members. So I'm very happy to be back again in the Committee of Regents. And I would like to start by welcoming the work of the Committee with the own initiative opinion on homelessness. A chat slide on the social issue that is high in our EU agenda. I would particularly like to salute the report term, Mr. Altonen, not only for the recommendations expressed in the opinion, but also for his active participation as a member of the steering board of the European platform on combating homelessness. Before zooming into the topic of today's discussion, I would like to say a few words on the successful enhanced cooperation between the Committee of Regents and my services, the DG employment launched last year. Within the preparation of the Port of Social Summit, the Committee of Regents opinions shed the light on the role of local and regional authorities in designing and implementing employment and social policies. Regional disparities in the implementation are substantial in member states. The most recent additions of the joint deployment report tried to address this, integrating a region dimension to the social scoreboard. We aim to continue this practice, and I hope also that we can count on the Committee to achieve this. I particularly appreciate the active involvement of the Committee in specific policy areas and initiatives, such as the promotion of the pact for skills to local and regional authorities. Yesterday you voted a resolution on the 2022 work program of the European Commission and the Committee Political Priorities for 2022. I reiterate the commitment of my services to cooperate closely on key employment and social priorities. Coming back to the topic of today's discussion, the creation of the European platform on combating homelessness also benefited from feedback from the DEC members. The adoption of the opinion is very timely. Only two days ago we had our first plenary meeting of the platform after its launch in June. I will come back with more details on the work program of this European initiative, but first let me say a word on the challenge and the response that the European Pillow of Social Rights Action Plan has put forward. As the reporter rightly highlights, in the opinion, homelessness is an extreme form of social exclusion and is also a complex issue to tackle. This complexity is linked to the fact that homelessness has many drivers and many forms, as discussed in the opinion. The courses for homelessness might be structural, such as low income precarious jobs or institutional, such as young adults living in institutional care without proper support to housing or personal, such as problems with addiction or mental health. The forms of homelessness include not only people living in the streets, perhaps the most visible form of homelessness, but also people sleeping in shelters or living in temporary accommodation for the homeless. Organizations working with the homeless also report hidden homelessness, with persons staying with family or friends, not by choice, but for lack of housing solutions. While there is no official data on homelessness at the EU level as estimates provided by civil society indicate that there has been a 70% increase in homelessness rates over the past 10 years. And the pandemic placed additional pressure on people at risk of becoming homeless during the lockdowns, vulnerable people and families living on low wages witnessed a dramatic drop in their income, making the payment of rent extremely difficult. Effective strategies to tackle homelessness require therefore a multidimensional approach and a cooperation of national, regional and local authorities with service providers in the design and implementation of policy measures and securing adequate funding. At the EU level access to housing and assistance to the homeless is a key social right enshrined in the European pillar of social rights. The European pillar of social rights action plan has put forward to initiatives to implement the right principle 19 on homelessness. The European platform on combating homelessness, an initiative to enhance cooperation at all levels of governance in the fight against homelessness and the affordable housing initiative, which seeks to promote investment in inclusive districts with a particular focus on the supply of social and affordable housing of good quality. The European platform on combating homelessness was launched in June through the signature of the Lisbon Declaration during a conference hosted by the Portuguese presidency. And this initiative aims at supporting member states authorities at all level of governance and stakeholders in the adoption of efficient strategies to eradicate and not just manage this extreme form of social exclusion. Participants of the platform have committed to renewed efforts in fighting homelessness, notably by reinforcing prevention and implementing integrated housing led approaches that seek to end and not simply manage homelessness. The platform will offer a forum for mutual learning and exchanges of good practices with a focus on public policies and practices for efficient strategies to combat homelessness. And this commission will contribute to this work with a policy toolkit on housing exclusion, which will be developed in collaboration with international organizations. In addition to give visibility to best practices, a European award on combating homelessness will recognize innovative and sustainable projects or initiatives. Secondly, the work of the platform will also focus on improving evidence to underpin strategic planning and on developing a monitoring framework to measure progress. The commission agrees with the rapporteur views in this context that member states and regional and local authorities should be encouraged to adopt the framework defining along the ethos classification. This typology of homelessness and housing exclusion was adopted at a consensus conference in 2010 by the European Commission and the umbrella organization of national associations working with the homeless. It has since been increasingly used as a reference framework in national and regional local initiatives. Comparable and recurrent data on homelessness would support member states to design effective policies. Thirdly, we will be promoting the use of relevant financial resources from national and EU budgets and supporting public authorities and stakeholders at national and local level. We will also be promoting the use of relevant financial resources at national and regional level, mobilized the relevant EU funds that will be available in the next programming period, 21, 27, including invest EU. We are in a favorable context for investments in decent and affordable housing, including social housing given the resources and instruments mobilized for the recovery and energy efficient renovations. This policy is a key lever for structural reforms and for addressing social and territorial inequalities. 24.2 billion from European Regional Fund have been allocated to inclusive growth areas, including social housing. The ERDF supported measures should facilitate access to the mainstream inclusive services, including social housing for marginalized groups, including people with a migrant background, especially Roma people or people with disabilities, people who have become homeless. In addition, the ERDF investments in social housing infrastructure need to be based on solid strategic frameworks on poverty reduction and social inclusion. We are also seeking close cooperation between the ERDF and the European Social Fund Plus to reinforce integrated measures and the ESF will continue to support the social inclusion and homeless people through various interventions. This includes, for example, integrated support services, counseling in the context of anti-eviction programs, training of services, providers working with the homeless and social economy programs aimed at facilitating the integration of homeless people. The Commission encourages member states to allocate further EU funds support in the 21-27 period to social housing and regional and local authorities are also encouraged to build in their strategy social inclusion measures as well as social housing investments. The invest EU social window also covers the financing of social infrastructure, including social housing and housing for the homeless people. With regard to strategies addressing homelessness, the Commission agrees with the rapporteur views that integrated housing-led approaches are the most efficient initiatives to tackle this issue. Integrated approaches combine immediate access to stable housing with a provision of enabling person-centered services to support the social inclusion or homeless persons and wherever possible, their integration in the labor market. Prevention measures are also an important part of these approaches, for instance, by ensuring sufficient supply of affordable and social housing, supporting income or developing mediation services between landlords and tenants. The involvement of stakeholders in the design and implementation of strategies aiming at combating homelessness is essential. Let me finish my intervention today by saying a few words on the work achieved so far on setting up the platform and the outlook for action in the near future. The Chair of the platform, Eva Tham, former Belgian Prime Minister and the Commission presented the draft work program for the next two to three years at the first meeting of the platform two days ago. The draft program has been prepared by the steering board. The Committee of the Regions is represented in the steering board by Mr. Miko Altonen, rapporteur of the opinion on homelessness, and Ms. Anna-Kar-I-Aleinen, Chair of the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture. The platform is a collaborative effort. The Commission will undertake a number of activities in the context of the platform program, and for which it will ensure financing. For instance, I think we can achieve concrete progress in data collection, highlighted as a key priority. The policy toolkit will also represent a step forward, translating the Lisbon Declaration principles into concrete guidance. Guidance supporting cities to the use of EU funding can also have a powerful leverage effect. During the meeting, all members of the platform were invited to contribute with ideas and activities and take part in their implementation. And I welcome in this context the commitment made by the Committee of the Regions to support the activities of the platform through notably biannual conferences on local homelessness policies, the organization of a meeting of the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment and Research and Culture, dedicated to homelessness, and the work program will be adopted in February 2022. In this way, we can make the most out of the platform and our joint work. Now, again, thank you for your commitment, your preparatory work, a special thanks to the rapporteur of this very, very fundamental report. And I'm looking forward to our exchanges today and to our future collaboration with the Committee of the Regions to bring the region at a local level into the design of strategy. And funding solutions and to put an end to homelessness, hopefully by 2030, but certainly to reduce it dramatically by that date. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. We invite you to stay with us during the exchange that's going to follow. And now it is my pleasure to give the floor to Mr. Kjell Larsson, the President of the European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homelessness. Mr. Larsson, you have the floor for five minutes. You have the floor. Mr. Larsson, you have to press the speak button. Do you hear me now? Yes, we can hear you. Good morning and welcome. Thank you very much. Still after nearly two years, it's difficult to remember to press the speak button. Thank you. Thank you, Chair, and thank you very much for the invitation here today. I realize the problem to be the speaker of the Nicola Smith here, who are devoted to the homeless issue and what you have been said also before. Some things that I wanted to say has already been said, but some things need to be on repeat, of course. When I read the Committee of Regions' opinion on eradicating homelessness in these 30 points, I feel very confident as the President of Fianza that the knowledge about homelessness are there. The suggestion for EU actions integrated in the Committee of Regions' opinion could easily be fed into the work of this newly established EU platform for combating homelessness. Because local, regional authorities are the key stakeholders in the fight against homelessness. It's very important that they are involved in any relevant European initiative, I think. And they should be easy enough as the platform is currently discussing its work program for the years to come. And as Nicola said, also the first plenary meeting of the platform took place now on Tuesday, and it was agreed to finalize and launch the work program at a high level event on homelessness during the French presidency of the EU. We in Fianza accept with gratitude the suggestions of the Committee of Regions in the opinion that Fianza should play an important role in the management and coordination of the platform. Because we believe in all modesty that we have the necessary knowledge and experience and networks to take on this role, as we are the only European organization also exclusively working on homelessness. And we are a key player at the EU level also. We also welcome in particularly the commitment of the Committee of Regions to organize on a regular basis a European event on local homelessness policies. You can count on Fianza to turn this into a flagship event of the platform. Well, as we have said this many times, homelessness is an urgent issue. We have no conclusive data on the impact also of the corona crisis and the scale and nature of homelessness. But most experts expect numbers to further increase. This as a time, this at the time that the at risk of poverty and social exclusion rate has remained largely stable at the EU level. Well, there is clearly something happening at the very bottom end of society which is insufficiently captured by general social trends. There is a growing understanding that managing homelessness in the shelter system is ineffective. And that we have to have housing led housing first approach to homelessness and more attention to targeted prevention. But there is still some way to go to turn this understanding in actual policy change and visible progress on the ground. An increasing number of the member states committed themselves to end homelessness by 2030. And this target has also been integrated into the Lisbon declaration with underpins the EU platform of homelessness. And which has been signed has been said now with all the 27 EU member states and all EU institution and a wide range of European NGOs and social partners. The question remains whether solving homelessness by 2030 is possible is a relevant question. But even if it's not realistic, it is important to change the paradigm of policy and service intervention and work towards ending homelessness at some point in the not too distant future. And finally, I will keep this short because I see that the time is running out. I must say that the Committee of Regions opinion here now on homelessness is so very close to fianza, fianza's opinion on homelessness. So that is why I think we should also work more together. Therefore, I invite the Committee of Regions here and now to consider applying for membership in fianza. So welcome to fianza, I would say. So thank you very much for me and for fianza. Thank you, Mr. Larsson. That is a good challenge, though. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to open the debate. We're going to start by the representatives of the political families. We invite Mr. Larsson to stay with us, of course, and I will now give the floor for two minutes to our colleague, Saba Barbolli. You have the floor, two minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Commissioner, Mr. Larsson, first of all, I wish to congratulate you for working with passion, commitment and humanity on this field. It requires strong motivation, especially for those who work every day in the stress, trying to bring comfort, food, a word of encouragement and compassion. The members of the EPP group greatly appreciate the approach of the European Commission aiming at finding credible and handy solutions in the homelessness. We believe in solidarity, but also in prevention, especially to mark a decisive full stop to the unacceptable in human phenomenon of homeless children in the school age. Yes, we agree that homelessness is against human rights, and yes, we agree that living standards, especially in big cities in times of COVID, have greatly deteriorated. In light of this, let me propose some extra inputs to the debate. First, as Christian Democrats, we believe in the concept of individual responsibility. Homeless people, especially adults who are already on the streets should receive guidance on how to get out of such extreme conditions and monitor it to check progress. Public authorities, especially local ones, can really help to reach this objective in partnership with the non-governmental partners. Perhaps Mr. Larsson can give us examples if this is already the case. Second, in the Housing First approach, Mr. Schmidt, the natural question that comes to my mind is, then what? Housing is crucial. We agree with that, but it must be designed as a part of a much broader mindset with the aim to regain a comfortable and sustainable living condition for those who are in great distress, seek for employment and rescuing if necessary should be the first prerequisites to be reached. I am certain that you cannot disagree with this, but I'd like to ask you for your consideration, the housing method, a final goal, greater than the strengthening point. Thank you very much for your attention and good work ahead. Thank you, thank you. And now I pass the floor to our colleague Ricardo Rio. You have the floor. Two minutes. Thank you very much. The subsequent recognition of homelessness as an important social issue that is on the European agenda is an important step forward, and the widely supported letter has been instrumental in achieving this and showing that there is a strong demand for a new action on homelessness. Dear Commissioner, I wish to quote something you recently said. When euros spent in prevention, combating poverty at its roots, will save us thousands of euros in the remedial action. It is investment in people in their hopes and talents. We cannot agree more. Prevention is the key to the success of actions aiming at eradicating homelessness. Prevention is a matter of solidarity and equality, but also of multi-level governments. And where prevention starts, it's in our local communities. It is by listening to the voices and needs of the most vulnerable families living in our constituencies that we can adapt our policies. And to do so, regional and local authorities need sufficient resources, especially in view of the implementation of the Housing First principle, as we have been defending in the urban roof project in which Braga My City participates. It costs not only money, but also solid relations with the private sector that should in principle co-finance projects on the ground with an integrated approach that involves economic, health, educational and social initiatives. Not only that, we need a vision. We need to come with ideas and means to be effective and credible in front of our key partners in this challenge, establishing solid relations with churches, associations and non-governmental organizations mainly. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I will now give the floor to Mr. Altonen for four minutes. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have a floor now to our colleague Fini. Kate Fini for three minutes. Thank you, President. I would like to thank the Commissioner, Mr. Larson, for joining us this morning. In Ireland we are currently experiencing a housing crisis with rising house and rental costs. Dublin, including Dunleary-Rathdown, my own Council area, which has the highest average house prices in the country. And while the housing crisis presents itself most visibly through homelessness, this is not the only issue arising from it, and indeed the Commissioner covered many of the issues in his own speech. In my own local authority, we work with partners across the Dublin region on our homeless strategy and have found the Housing First programme to have very good success rates, with an almost 87% tenancy retention rate from those who took part in the programme. And this shows that if we want to be truly successful in eradicating homelessness, we need to take a holistic approach in recognising and addressing all of the complex needs of people experiencing homelessness. In Dublin at the moment, there are 752 families in emergency accommodation placements and 3,019 single people in emergency accommodation placements. This includes people in shelters, family hubs, and indeed hotels and BMBs. And it doesn't even capture the full picture, as we find in practice, that there are people who would rather stay in unstable and unsuitable accommodation than go into the emergency shelters and they are therefore not recorded in official data. Data also shows a changing profile of homelessness in Ireland, with an increasing number of women presenting as homeless. And I think in that regard, it's striking that we have a predominantly male speakers list here this morning, and women's voices need to be part of this debate at every level, and as an organisation, we should work to ensure that that happens. It was noted in a commission report in 2019 that Ireland had serious gaps in the definition and counting of the extent of homelessness and housing exclusion. And I would beg her that we are not alone in this. And that makes it all the more important when we are agreeing, wording on an EU-wide definition of homelessness, that it is broad enough to capture all of the people who are currently falling outside of the system, so that we can ensure that they get the supports that they need. Finally, at our last preliminary session, we agreed an opinion on the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy, which noted that the limited data available shows that 25 to 40 percent of young people experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTIQ. We need to do more work in this area, both to gather adequate data and to work with these young people who are currently experiencing the most extreme form of social exclusion. And we will be grateful for the commissioner's assistance in this regard. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'll give the floor to Psybilski, Cezary Psybilski. You have the floor for two and a half minutes. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, commissioners, colleagues and colleagues. The problem of homelessness is the international problem, because the homeless people in Sofia, Lvova or Minsk are currently on the streets and in the old Polish cities, and the Polish homeless people appear in Berlin, Paris, Rome or Brussels. The problem of homelessness and the exclusion of housing is one of the social problems of the former Silesia, which represents it. According to the Polish legal system, the issues related to homelessness are responsible for the administration of Minsk on the higher level of the government. This bill is not in the competition of martial arts. Martial arts, however, have a priority on the UN funds. For the last 17 years, several projects of serving activities of this group have been carried out and against the actions of the results and conclusions. These actions were mainly to deal with the difficulties of developing social and professional competences. The government organizations, dealing with homeless people with the help of the government, carried out four projects on a total of over two million euros. It shows how very important the social issue is. That is why it is so important to have high means for the European Union to think about it. homeless people are a group that is the most difficult to activate and solve their problems, because apart from the lack of a place to live, they have a wide range of social problems, such as unemployment, commotion, addiction, health problems, mental disorders. The importance of the activities of homeless people has a greater availability of low-cost social housing and communal housing programs for people in a more difficult economic situation, such as seniors, families with unfulfilled people. Thank you. Now I give the floor to Declan McDonald. You have the floor for two minutes. Dear Commissioner, dear Mr. Arnson, dear colleagues, we are talking about a very serious issue on homelessness. An over-reliance on the increasingly unaffordable private rental market and a shortage of new housing units are key factors contributing to homelessness. In my city of Galway-Lone, there were 1,157 homeless people registered in 2020, of which 350 were children. In addition, around 4,500 families are on the waiting list for council housing at this time. Since the lifting of the National Wide Monetarium and Evictions in Ireland, which was introduced as a COVID measure, there has been an increase in the number of families entering homelessness, with a 9.5 increase in the number of people in the emergency accommodation in Galway in the first three months of this year. Winter is already upon us, and these numbers are only likely to get worse. The cold weather response, which is a humanitarian response targeted at rough sleepers, came into operation earlier this month. But what we must remember is that behind these statistics, there are real people experiencing trauma and distress. This is why we need to continue to build both transient and permanent housing, but also focus on the human dimension, and as policy makers do more to forge trust between homeless people and the assistance groups. Collaboration and innovation are key words in the area of homeless service delivery. Our city of Galway used emergency powers to support the delivery of 15 modular homes to be delivered in the city. This project, which has been run by Peter McVirti Trust, is in operation since May 2020, and it has afforded a service delivery that focuses on supporting persons into their long-term tenancies. In Galway, we have embraced the national policy of housing first, an international evidence-based model, which I understand is working well in countries such as Finland, whereby street homelessness is almost eradicated as a result. To date, there are 20 tenancies in place, and this cross-departmental approach from health, housing, addiction, and mental health sector is welcome and long overdue as a model of inter-agency cooperation. It is only by working together with local and regional governments that we can finally end homelessness. Gourmino Marcos, thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague Dan Boyle for two minutes. Thank you, Chair, and thank the commissioner and Mr. Larson for their contributions. The issue of homelessness is multifactorial, and the economic basis of pursuing policies, whereby the cost of renting and, if possible, purchase of accommodation is beyond many people, is the pursuit of market-led policies, and the role of local and regional governments should be to have as many social interventions as possible in the provision of housing for our citizens. Of course, being multifactorial, the issues of each homeless person and each homeless family is unique. We have to take into account the issues that go beyond economics, the issues of mental health, the issues of addiction, the need for health workers, social workers, addiction councillors to be available in greater numbers and to be working in areas where individuals can be helped. And in this regard, I believe the role of the Committee of the Regions should be to identify best practice and encourage it throughout all our local and regional government structures. It's good that the opinion that's been provided is from Finland and the experience of Helsinki because thought has been given, resources have been provided, and results are being achieved, and I believe can be achieved throughout all our local and regional authorities. We need to take the issue of homelessness seriously, remove it from the periphery, and not indulge in cliches in saying that it's an issue that we live with and accept to a certain extent. We are better than that. Our citizens deserve better than that. And while we pursue issues that are more esoteric in the political value they may give us as elected representatives, the fact that homelessness exists at all is a shame on all of us in our local communities and throughout the continent of Europe. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Now, we have two more interventions, and then we'll go to Mr. Larson and Mr. Schmidt, but right now I will give the floor to our colleague Zitali Ferrari for one minute. You have the floor for one minute. First, the prevention of social, labor and housing development models that facilitate social integration, especially of the most vulnerable social people and collectives. Second, the immediate action of the people who are homeless offering everything they need for decent living conditions. And finally, the social accompaniment processes. For all of this, we have the opportunity, the obligation and the responsibility to coordinate all the sources of funding available at the service of homeless people, both of the plan of recovery and resilience as well as of the policy of cohesion. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you. Now, the floor goes to our colleague Wupp, Gary Wupp. You have the floor for one minute. We have developed a master plan in Berlin that is based on the principle of Housing First. We bring the actors of the different levels together, coordinate the work in our 3.5 million apartment metropolis and also try to let the very different living conditions of homeless people into these projects. We also use 11 million euros alone from the EU funds that we have received in addition to housing loss projects. We have organized a regular exchange here, the strategy conferences. Commissioner Schmidt has the opportunity to participate in such a conference in May this year. I hope that this exchange leads to that we reach our goals together. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, I don't have any more requests for the floor. I will give the floor to Mr. Larson for final remarks for three minutes. Mr. Larson, if you want to add something, you have the floor for three minutes to add final remarks. Don't forget to push the speak button. Well, thank you very much, Chair. I don't have actually so many remarks because I think everything that's been, you know, everything has been said. You don't have to say anything more now. Everybody knows that we want to eradicate homelessness and we know a very good, powerful tool that we have to eradicate homelessness with. And that's housing-led and housing-first solutions. So I would be like, encourage all countries and all regions that listening now on local and regional level that you should try to establish some knowledge about housing solutions, about housing-led, housing-first, how to work with that, because it's cost-effective and it's a very good way to approach and it gives high quality for the service user. I don't know what else to say actually because everything has been said. So I think I'll stop there. If there's any question, I could easily answer them in that case. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Larson. We invite you to stay with us. We have a final video. I think you know that final video on this issue that we would like you also to share with us. Now I will give the floor for final remarks and to conclude this point of our agenda. To Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicholas Schmidt, you have the floor for five minutes. Thank you very much, Chair. So first, I want to thank the Committee of Regions, but especially all the members who have presented their views on this issue. And I think this shows that the Committee of Regions, being the representatives of our local and regional committee, have a central, essential role to play in our strategy against homeless. This is absolutely indispensable. And I thank you also for investing so much in this topic. My second remark is on how we should approach this. And I think everybody shared that view that there is only a comprehensive approach which allows us to reduce dramatically homelessness in a reasonable timeframe. And when we say a comprehensive approach, this is fighting homelessness is part of our combating poverty. We have an ambitious, rather ambitious objective set in our Porto Action Plan, reducing poverty. And in this target, homelessness should be one of our priorities. So a comprehensive approach means also that certainly housing first is the right approach. It's the approach which we have now to extend. And I think our Finnish friends have shown how efficient it is. And especially also the rapporteur, Mr. Alton, who is from Finland, has given us a lot of good arguments. But housing first is also a comprehensive approach. We have to reinforce social services because without good social services in the different areas and the role of social workers were mentioned, we will not be able to combat efficiently homelessness. I fully agree that the solutions of shelters are ineffective. These are just solutions for urgent situations. But in the longer term, they are not the solution. Last comment on first, yes, now homelessness is strongly anchored in our European agenda. And I think also the committee is playing in that respect an important role. I look forward for the French presidency and the big conference they organized on this topic. And I hope that we can have made already progress on the different issues. How we have to deal at the level of European semester. I agree it has been also an element in the European semester, especially in the context of poverty, child poverty, housing. And that's my last point. Housing is a key issue. Housing is one of the courses of homelessness. And here I think there is a need all over Europe, all over our member states, all over our regional and local authorities to invest more in affordable housing. If housing is, and it is, according to our own principles, according to UN principles, a human right, then we have really to invest to implement this human right. It's not just a human right on paper, it's a human right in reality. And this is an economic, this is a social, and it is obviously also a financial issue. And so we have to make sure that the housing markets all over Europe are finding a new balance because housing has become not just the fulfillment of a human right, it has become mainly a speculative object. And we have to restore some balance on these markets. And this is only possible by investing in affordable housing. And here our local authorities play also a very important role. So, thank you.