Disclaimers 2

What is driving homelessness and housing exclusion in OECD and EU countries? 3

Acknowledgements 4

Executive summary 7

1 Introduction 9

2 Key terms and data sources 10

  2.1. Key terms to assess the main drivers of homelessness and housing exclusion 10

  2.2. Sources of data on the drivers, risk factors and triggers leading to homelessness and housing exclusion 13

3 Findings from a literature review 17

  3.1. Steps in the literature review 17

  3.2. Structural drivers of homelessness 18

  3.3. Systemic failures and institutional factors 21

  3.4. Individual and relational factors 23

4 Cross-national data on past experiences of homelessness and housing difficulties 29

  4.1. Assessing past housing difficulties in the EU: 2023 EU-SILC special module on housing difficulties 29

  4.2. Assessing past experiences of homelessness in Canada: The 2022 Canadian Housing

  Survey 40

5 Conclusions and issues for further exploration 47

  5.1. Main conclusions 47

  5.2. Remaining knowledge gaps 48

References 50

Annex A. Inventory of literature on the drivers of homelessness 61

Annex B. Methodology: Upstream drivers of homelessness 69

  Background and objectives 69

  Analytical approach 69

  Data sources 69

  Limitations 69

  Interpretation 70

Annex C. Additional results from EU-SILC special module on housing difficulties 71