A Cardiff based housing association has undertaken a Europe wide project to create a network of agencies committed to managing the movement of EU homeless migrants.
Taff Housing Association; have also recently been commissioned to deliver the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme in Cardiff, from the UK delivery arm of the newly created European Homeless Mobile Citizen Network. The network is a two year project in conjunction with the European Commission and its delivery organisation, Feantsa.
The inception of the network follows findings from Feantsa that in several major cities of North-Western European countries, EU mobile citizens are amongst the most affected by homelessness.
Additionally, According to Feantsa’s ‘On the Way Home’ study, homeless services from 12 EU Member States report a growing proportion of immigrants among service users, including the UK.
The recently formed network sees agencies report upon differing national and collective strategies, exchanging approaches and best practice. The network aims not only to create a comprehensive picture of EU homeless migration but a holistic approach to how it is managed at local, national and european policy level; with practice to be disseminated to professionals across the EU through the creation of a website resource and a series of local dissemination events.
Further aims of the network include the development of a secure login to allow organisations to track movement of homeless person between states.
In realising these outcomes, Taff Housing commissioned technology specialists Locality Solutions to produce the necessary web resources for agencies to share best practice, communicate on policy and identify trends of movement. The intention is to inform future decision making and to enable swift processes for managing the movement of homeless migrants across Europe.
Locality already has a reputation as a go – to provider for public sector challenges, providing multi-agency case management technology that sees vital services securely sharing information to manage instances of anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse.
Locality director Karen Boparoy says :
“Technology can be a force for good and we can see its application throughout this project, both in understanding the challenges of migration and reporting and informing agencies upon trends to best inform practice and decision making procedures.”
Elaine Ballard from Taff HA highlighted that :
“Collaborative working across agencies is essential in establishing solutions to challenges faced by homeless migration and collective challenges across Europe. Technology plays a crucial part within this as well as the will of agencies to work collaboratively and to the good of people.”