Preventing homelessness and housing exclusion: a focus on early intervention.

A common message from people who have experienced homelessness is that early opportunities to intervene, provide support, and ultimately prevent the harms of homelessness are too often missed. Whilst there have been promising developments in the prevention of homelessness, the speed of change has been slow, and systems and funding remain largely oriented towards emergency contexts. In Europe, the Lisbon Declaration on the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness offers hope of new momentum behind the prevention agenda as it commits states to reinforced prevention efforts. As part of the mutual learning process between European Union member states, this paper was produced to inform thinking on early intervention. The paper presents a typology of homelessness prevention and justifies a focus on early intervention. Drawing upon a review of selected international literature, the paper identifies effective preventative measures and draws out cross-cutting lessons on enablers and barriers to implementation. The paper also includes a very brief and timely discussion on prevention during crises such as the cost-of-living crisis. The key contribution of the paper is to challenge governments to reflect critically on the extent to which their strategies are prevention-oriented and to swiftly make progress on this agenda