HOMEMORE - assessing the efficiency of policies and architectural approaches in the homeless European context

The "Homemore" thesis intends to be part of the research and development of policies of sustainability and equality promoted by the guiding principles of the Agenda 2030 program, focusing, in particular, on the condition of homeless people and the social dynamics triggered by the phenomenon. United Nations estimate that today, 55% of global population lives in urban centers, a number which is expected to grow until 68% by 2050. Within the same period, it is foreseen that other 2.5 billions of people will add to the current 7.5 billions and will live in cities. This framework of demographic rise goes hand by hand with a rapid and strong but very unequal economic growth. Studies in the sector affirm, indeed, that the current economic system has multiplied by ten times the income per capita but with unfair measures that heavily contribute to foster social inequalities. As a result, those who cannot afford housing and familiar expenses, are forced to abandon everything to find shelter along a street or under a gallery. Under these circumstance homelessness takes shape, i.e the phenomenon of people who lose their home, which counts 150 millions of individuals around the Globe (more or less the 2% of the entire global population) and which is constantly increasing. In order to try to decode and deal with the phenomenon, it is necessary to understand its causes. The first phase of the paper was, therefore, articulated around the study of the present literature, which made it possible to draw a general framework on the different forms of homelessness and the main reasons that aggravate its state. To these have been added the data of each country of the European Union in order to confirm the trends studied and to have an overview of the numbers and percentages. Since the term homeless itself defines a condition in which there is an absence of a house, the next phase was concerned to question the meaning of the word "home" and how it can be translated not only into physical solutions but also emotional and psychological. During the final phase, some active projects on European soil were collected and analyzed with the aim of understanding whether they could meet the needs of the homeless population and, possibly, suggest some measures necessary for proper design.