It is estimated that on average across the OECD roughly 0.25% of the population is experiencing homelessness, according to national statistical definitions of homelessness. These definitions may include people sleeping rough, staying in emergency or temporary accommodation, living in institutions, residing in unconventional dwellings, or staying with family and friends. However, significant differences in definitions and measurement approaches (such as street counts and administrative data) among countries make it challenging to measure and compare homelessness internationally.
Homelessness
Homelessness is a pressing challenge in OECD and EU countries. At least 2 million people in the OECD were considered to be experiencing homelessness in official government statistics in 2023 or the latest year. However, this is likely an underestimate, due to persistent measurement challenges. There is renewed momentum to improve the measurement and monitoring of homelessness, and to design public policies to prevent homelessness and create sustainable pathways out of homelessness.
Key messages
Developing national homelessness strategies can be a key first step to help governments define priorities, determine clear and measurable goals and the actions and resources necessary to achieve them, and bring relevant actors around the table to advance on a common objective. According to the 2023 OECD Questionnaire on Affordable and Social Housing, 26 of 43 OECD and EU countries report having an active homelessness strategy in place.
Evictions from rental housing are a widespread phenomenon across the OECD, where at least 2.4 million formal eviction procedures were initiated in the latest year for which data are available. Preventing evictions, whenever possible, and providing necessary targeted assistance to people facing evictions can be an important step towards stopping homelessness before it happens.
Forthcoming OECD Work on Homelessness
Improving data collection on homelessness: the OECD Monitoring Framework
The OECD Monitoring Framework presents six common approaches to collect data on homelessness, and identifies the main characteristics of each approach, along with the strengths, limitations, and common implementation challenges. The Monitoring Framework also provides an overview of collection methods on homelessness across OECD countries and provides recommendations to improve data collection efforts.
Designing policies to end homelessness: The OECD Toolkit to Combat Homelessness
The Toolkit aims to provide guidance to policy makers to prevent people from becoming homeless, support people who are experiencing homelessness, and provide effective, sustainable pathways out of homelessness. The Toolkit features nine building blocks, each of which represents a key dimension of good policy practice to combat homelessness. Together, the building blocks aim to support policy makers throughout policy design, implementation, and management phases.
