Regularisation and Housing: the European challenge to break the cycle of homelessness
Across Europe, thousands of migrants with irregular administrative status remain trapped in a cycle of exclusion that is extremely hard to break. Lack of residence authorisation limits access to formal employment; precarious work makes it impossible to secure housing; and the absence of a stable home blocks any process of social or administrative inclusion.
This dynamic is no accident, but a structural pattern extensively documented in multiple reports, including the one recently published by PICUM, (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) and FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless). The report analyses the systematic exclusion experienced by migrants in irregular situations across Europe when trying to access decent housing. Although housing is a fundamental human right, this group faces legal and economic barriers and widespread discrimination that push them into extreme precarity.
The PICUM–FEANTSA report, Housing and homelessness of undocumented migrants across Europe: patterns, barriers, and ways forward, compiled from the experiences of organisations across Europe, shows how housing policies and migration control are increasingly intertwined, creating near-insurmountable barriers. Administrative requirements that are impossible to meet, bureaucratic hurdles such as local registration, discrimination in the private rental market, fear of detection by authorities, and restricted access to publicly funded accommodation push many people towards unsafe, informal housing solutions or directly onto the streets. Homelessness, in this context, is not an accident but a predictable outcome of exclusionary legal frameworks. In addition, the report identifies a growing criminalisation of basic assistance, which deters potential helpers for fear of legal consequences. Families, young people and children are especially affected, with serious impacts on health, schooling and life projects.
Beyond the overall diagnosis, the PICUM–FEANTSA report pinpoints the mechanisms that make homelessness almost inevitable for people with an irregular administrative status. The absence of firewalls separating social services from migration control means that going to a shelter, seeking information, or attempting to report discriminatory treatment or a hate crime can entail the risk of detention. In several European countries, renting to an undocumented person can be sanctioned or even criminalised, pushing this group into informal markets where abuse, overcrowding and exploitation proliferate.
Against this European backdrop, a meaningful window of opportunity has opened in Spain. The Draft Royal Decree amending the Immigration Regulations (RD 1155/2024), put forward by the Government a few weeks ago, represents progress on regularisation processes by acknowledging—at least in part—a reality long highlighted by the third sector: administrative irregularity does not result from individual failings but from systems that structurally produce exclusion and precarity. Addressing it is a necessary condition for guaranteeing basic rights, including the right to housing. As we set out in our analysis of the draft regulation, currently under public consultation in which we have submitted several contributions, a well‑designed regularisation can act as a lever to break the exclusion cycle described by PICUM–FEANTSA: it unlocks access to jobs with rights, reduces residential exploitation, makes it possible to rent in the formal market, and reduces reliance on emergency solutions that, by definition, cannot offer stability
At HOGAR SÍ, we maintain that it is impossible to end homelessness without tackling administrative irregularity, and equally impossible to promote effective regularisation processes without guaranteeing minimum material living conditions. For many people, in fact, the lack of residence authorisation is not just a vulnerability factor but the principal driver that pushes them directly into homelessness, preventing them from accessing jobs with rights, renting a home, or even using basic services without fear. The PICUM–FEANTSA report clearly confirms this diagnosis: when access to housing depends on having papers and regularisation, in turn, depends on having a work contract or stable housing, a vicious circle is perpetuated that is almost impossible to escape. Removing this barrier would enable thousands of people to regain stability, rebuild their life projects, and move towards real inclusion.
Despite the punitive trend evident across much of Europe (also present at times in the Spanish context) there are real opportunities to move towards rights-based approaches grounded in guaranteeing material living conditions. Designing accessible mechanisms that do not require prior housing, strengthening the role of social services as safe spaces, and ensuring that access to accommodation is not conditioned on administrative status are fundamental steps to effectively break the homelessness cycle. Regularisation is not only a migration policy: it is a social policy that facilitates access to employment, housing and social protection, reduces exclusion, and strengthens social cohesion.
At HOGAR SÍ, we will continue to affirm that no one should be left without a home because of their administrative status. Guaranteeing dignified, stable housing is not the end of the process—it is the first step for everyone to rebuild their life project.
Aitor de la Fuente Sánchez, Public Affairs Relations Officer at HOGAR SÍ.
Descarga y lee el el informe completo de PICUM–FEANTSA aquí:
