There is increasing consensus amongst stakeholders at European, national, regional and local levels that ‘housing–led’ approaches to tackling homelessness are particularly effective. However, little attention has been paid to the specificities of applying these approaches in rural contexts. This paper highlights a number of challenges to implementing housing-led approaches in rural areas, and makes recommendations as to how these can be overcome. It is aimed at policy makers and service providers as well as other interested stakeholders. The paper was developed by the FEANTSA Housing Working Group in the context of their broader work on housing-led approaches.