Dundee hosts international homelessness conference

The latest strategies to combat homelessness and social exclusion across Europe were the topic of a major conference held in Dundee in March.

About 120 delegates attended the European Observatory on Homelessness conference which was hosted by the Joint Centre for Scottish Housing Research (JCSHR), a collaborative venture between the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews.

Key speakers at the conference included Malcolm Chisholm MSP, Minister for Communities, who spoke on Scottish homelessness legislation, and Phillip Mangano, of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, who explained the latest US policies on tackling homelessness.

"Homelessness and social exclusion are major issues facing countries right across Europe," said Bill Edgar, honorary research fellow in the School of Town Planning and co-founder of JCSHR with Professor Joe Doherty at the University of St Andrews.

"In many ways Scotland is leading the way in this area with the "Right To Housing" legislation, which states that by 2012 local authorities must be able to offer homeless people permanent accommodation within a defined time period."

"We have also established some of the leading research in this area, so it is quite fitting that this conference was held in Dundee."

The conference, titled "Intervention Strategies on Social Exclusion and Homelessness in Europe", was funded by FEANTSA, the European federation of national organisations working with the homeless and marks a starting point of a genuine trans-national co-operation on the issue of homelessness.