Housing insecurity, energy poverty, and social exclusion remain critical challenges across European cities. While 87-year-old woman was evicted after a real estate fund raised her rent beyond what she could afford in Madrid, Spain, the State reaction was immediate, planning to extend the “social shield” until 2030, reinforcing protection of vulnerable people at risk of losing their home. Over the past three years, a project receiving support from the European Commission’s Horizon programme, HouseInc, has brought together researchers, policymakers, and local communities to investigate the root causes of housing marginalization—and, more importantly, to identify scalable solutions. These solutions range from innovative financing models and community-led housing initiatives to energy efficiency retrofits and inclusive governance frameworks.
Housing sparked lively discussions across September, between the publication of the Housing affordable act and Spanish protests against evictions and housing prices in capitals driving inhabitants away against tourists or short term renters. Late September 2026, the Spanish government reacted and approved two new decrees aimed at tackling the country’s housing crisis, including stronger protection against evictions, limits on speculative purchases to tax incentives, and new renting rules and zero-interest financing to support first buyers – yet rejected by Spanish Congress on October 2. Finding an affordable, safe, and warm place to live shouldn’t feel like winning the lottery. Yet, for millions of people across Europe, rising housing costs, high energy bills, and systemic hurdles make secure housing harder and harder to reach.
Over the past three years, the EU-funded HouseInc project set out to answer a simple question: How can we make housing fairer and more inclusive for everyone?
HouseInc researchers compiled initiatives and innovations devoted to tackling housing inequalities: 222 solutions mapped and analysed in relation to three core dimensions; affordability, sustainability, and inclusivity, in an atlas freely available. The research was then completed by empirical surveys and targeted focus groups with key policy, financial, and community stakeholders, leading to the development of 10 solutions factsheets.
These pathways explicitly reflect the HouseInc dimensions:
- Affordability, understood as the adoption of financial solutions or innovative business models;
- Sustainability, referring to the development of technical, technological, and digital solutions; and
- Inclusivity, understood as the promotion of social innovations capable of widening access and responding to the needs of vulnerable groups.
Each presents an actionable pathway to tackle housing inequality across Europe, translating rigorous evidence into practice. Designed to inform and support municipal governments, social housing providers, investors, and policymakers, the briefings outline the core problem, operational setup, enabling conditions, and potential barriers to help adapt and scale effective housing initiatives at both national and European levels, with a focus on vulnerable populations.
Deep-dive research meets actionable policy
Each briefing tackles a real-world problem and shares concrete ideas that communities, local and national policymakers, and everyday advocates can actually use:
- Warmer homes, lower bills: how to make energy-efficient upgrades accessible to households on lower incomes.
- Community first: how neighbourhoods are coming together to create co-housing and cooperative options.
- Smarter funding: fresh approaches to financing homes that prioritize people over profit.
- Multilevel governance: Simple steps for local governments to ensure marginalized voices help shape housing policy.
Each factsheet shares best practices from across Europe that serve as concrete takeaways that can be applied directly to local and regional contexts.
Explore the Resources
- Download the full report
- Browse the atlas (see tab here)
- Browse the 10 factsheets below
Deep-dive research meets actionable policy – 10 factsheets and their HouseInc dimension
Affordability:
- 1. Delivery schemes to expand housing+ supply
- 2. Financing schemes to expand housing+ supply
- 3. Internal economies in housing to enhance sustainable affordability
Inclusivity
- 4. Housing+ as a platform for social inclusion
- 5. Co-designing solutions with marginalized communities: the Living Lab methodology
- 6. Toolkit for capacity building in Living Labs
Sustainability
- 7. Smart meter data to measure energy poverty
- 8. Digital decision support systems for ESG-driven urban regeneration
- 9. Targeted, place-based and outcome-oriented energy renovation measures for vulnerable groups
Cross-cutting
