9 March 2006

Homelessness Conference

The latest strategies to combat homelessness and social exclusion across Europe will be discussed at a major conference being held in Dundee this month.

Around 120 delegates from all over Europe will attend the European Observatory on Homelessness conference at the Queen’s Hotel on Thursday March 23rd. The event is being hosted by the Joint Centre for Scottish Housing Research (JCSHR), a collaborative venture between the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews.

Key speakers at the conference will include Malcolm Chisholm MSP, Minister for Communities, who is speaking on Scottish homelessness legislation, and Phillip Mangano, of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, who will explain 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 at the University of Dundee 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 we are hosting this conference in Dundee."

The conference, titled "Intervention Strategies on Social Exclusion and Homelessness in Europe", is funded by FEANTSA, the European federation of national organisations working with the homeless.

The conference aims to be the starting point of a genuine trans-national co-operation on the issue of homelessness. It is designed for all people who are involved in developing, implementing and monitoring policy solutions and will provide an excellent opportunity to develop trans-national relations to help shape policy and practice.

For more information contact:

Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk