Housing case studies

The well-being of children is closely related to the housing conditions in which they live. Poor living conditions can result in ill-health, lower educational attainment and unhappiness. Poor housing has been shown to cause excessive stress for children and adults leading to long term depression and anxiety.

Lack of affordable housing is a significant problem in several network cities and homeless families are becoming a widespread problem, with an increasing number of families and their children every year being forced to spend increasingly long periods in bed and breakfast hotels and other forms of "temporary" accommodation. Families become homeless for many complex, often inter-related reasons, which can impact negatively on children.

A conference and policy workshop took place on this theme in Budapest in February 2009. Delegates discussed effective solutions to tackle homelessness and successful ways of minimising the effects of poor housing conditions. Read more about the Budapest conference.