Housing in Greece

Overview

The availability of decent accommodation plays a crucial role to enable Third Country Nationals (TCNs) to enjoy other rights as their access to health, to education, to the labour market but also to socially integrate into the local societies.

Greece lacks a coherent and concrete social housing policy for vulnerable groups. Except for very few cases, the housing phenomenon has been mostly a matter of private activity and it is worth mentioning that very high rates of homeownership were reached by the 90s. Therefore, following the “example” of the other countries of Southern Europe, Greek state deposited the issue of housing mainly in its informal institution family and individual responsibility, rather than a public policy. The pre-crisis framework for the homeless could therefore be characterized as residual, fragmented and by an extended charitable type of activity. The outbreak of the global crisis in the mid-2000 had a significant impact on the expansion of social inequalities. Primary consequence of the impose of austerity measures were the extensive cuts in social expenditure. Countries like Greece or Spain experienced abrupt increase in poverty and social exclusion.  

Briefly, in the international literature, four different forms of housing support could be distinguished and they focus on different time points of occurrence of the homelessness phenomenon: homelessness prevention services, transitional accommodation services and housing and social integration services. Emergency services dominated as a form of social support in this socially inadequate context. As preventive measures could be noted the housing allowance rent subsidy which is offered to all residents in Greece and TCNs who have been legally residing in the country for at least five consecutive years and fulfill specific poverty eligibility criteria. As emergency services, there are few homeless day centers and night sleep centers that offer food, clothing, medicines, personal hygiene products, a shower and a connection with other social protection services to any homeless person. Only a few shelters operate for specialized cases such as Female Victims of Gender based violence, open for Greeks and TCNs. Additionally, citizens’ actions and NGOs offer other dimensions of assistance to homeless people – Greeks and TCNs – such as the Common Meals provided by the voluntary group of the “Allos Anthropos” which is a social collective kitchen in the streets offering a cooked meal to any person in need, and the mobile laundry unit for the homeless of the NGO “Ithaka”.  Moreover, there are other forms of social support to very poor or homeless people such as the Social Pharmacies and Social Groceries where the eligibility criteria to get benefited are individual or family income criteria. 

According to P.D 141/2014 art 33, beneficiaries of international protection are provided with the necessary assistance in matters of housing under the conditions applicable to Greek citizens, taking into account the need to ensure equal opportunities for access to accommodation.

Reception mechanisms for refugees and asylum seekers are the responsibility of the national authorities. Housing and accommodation policies in Greece differ for asylum seekers and recognized beneficiaries of international protection. The official accommodation system in Greece for asylum seekers (while the asylum application is processed) consists of three different types:

1. accommodation in the Reception and Identification Centres established in the Northeastern Aegean islands (RICs) and in the Northeastern town of Fylakio;
2. temporary Accommodation Centres (camps) in mainland Greece;
3. accommodation and housing in apartments and buildings in the urban space.

In the last type, through the IOM FILOXENIA project, hotels were also added as an urgent temporary solution for dignified accommodation introduced in mid-2018 to decongest the high residing number of asylum applicants in the Northeastern Aegean islands. Additionally, according to the L4636/2019 the specific situation of vulnerable groups in the context of reception provisions shall be taken into account by the Reception Authorities. Such groups are minors, unaccompanied or not, direct relatives of victims of shipwrecks, disabled people, elderly people, pregnant women, single parents with minor children, persons with serious illnesses, persons with cognitive or mental disability and persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence, victims of female genital mutilation and victims of human trafficking. In that last regard, the amended Law 4686/2020 provides that the competent authority for the protection of unaccompanied and separated minors is the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors and is responsible among other tasks for coordinating the reception and hosting of unaccompanied minors in Greece to accommodation structures such as shelters, apartments (SIL), safe zones and hotels. Moreover, women who have been subjected to gender based violence (GDB) can apply and be referred to for accommodation to specialized shelters for women victims of GDB which offer temporary housing along with social, psychological and legal support to them. Both categories shelters are located allover Greece. 

Some of the challenges encountered by TCNs include:

• language barriers: upon exiting the reception system, beneficiaries of international protection have no knowledge of the Greek language, thus hindering the timely fulfilment of needed administrative procedures and issuance of formalities, in order to be accepted as signatories of legally binding documents, such as a lease agreement;  
• insufficient funds to cover the initial expenses that renting a house entails; 
• streamlining of processes and dissemination of relevant information are not ensured in a crosscutting fashion among services, leading to delays in issuance of formalities; 
• reluctance or refusal of property owners to rent to TCNs due to concerns that beneficiaries will be unable to keep up with the payment of the monthly rental, concerns about damages to their properties,  xenophobia;  
• scarcity of quality affordable apartments, especially in urban areas. 

Covid-19

A detailed operation plan was designed by the General Secretariat for the Reception of Asylum Seekers as a general national plan, which provides guidelines to the Reception and Identification Centers (RICs) for TCNs and to the Administrators of the Long Term Accommodation Centers. Accommodation facilities on the mainland in which Covid-19 cases were identified, were put in quarantine for 14 days and all residents, i.e. Covid-19 cases and residents which have not been identified as such, were not allowed to exit the facility. According to Agnodiki plan for managing an outbreak in any of the above-mentioned accommodation centers, the latter should be quarantined and all cases (confirmed and suspected) are isolated and treated in situ. In similar cases of outbreaks in enclosed population groups (such as nursing homes or private haemodialysis centres) vulnerable individuals were immediately moved from the site to safe accommodation, while all confirmed and suspected cases were isolated off-site in a separate facility.