The price of housing has increased faster than revenues for all sections of the European population, but it has particularly affected poor households. In 2013 in the 28 EU Member States, the average share of poor households’ budget spent on housing was 41%, i.e. 20 points more than for the population overall1. 11% of all households in Europe spent more than 40% of their income on housing that same year. 5.2% of households experienced severe material deprivation with regard to housing. The number of homeless people in Europe remains unknown due to the variances in definitions and survey methods, but a large majority of countries have seen the population of people excluded from the housing market increase dramatically over the last number of years. The lack of affordable housing in Europe is a frightening reality. While access to safe, decent and affordable housing is a right that           influences how most other fundamental rights are implemented, seeing housing as a lucrative commodity and asset is central to the economic shocks that have shaken modern societies. Despite significant disparities within European countries, particularly between the large, attractive urban areas where prices have surged and areas experiencing rural flight where prices have sunk, and despite the 2007 recession during which house prices fell and incomes stopped growing in many countries – the last 15 years have seen house prices increase faster than household income. This holds for all European countries except Germany, Finland and Portugal. The house price/income ratio in 2014 was more than 10% greater than the long-term average in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and more than 20% greater in Belgium, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom2. Inability to access property has a far greater impact on those on low incomes: in Europe, poor households3 spend up to three times more on their housing than others. Added to this is the increased concentration of people in particular housing types according to their housing status. The private rental sector is the fallback sector for poor households who do not have access to social housing.