Wednesday 28 October 2026

Visits

Over the course of Wednesday afternoon, we invite participants to register for project visits and other opportunities to learn about Housing First in Rotterdam and in The Netherlands first hand.  Local and national organisations will arrange activities, presentations and interactive sessions for conference participants.  

A detailed programme listing these activities will be sent to all registered participants.  We will invite you to sign up for individual sessions by 30 September 2026.  

Sample sessions include: 

• Street Doctors of Rotterdam (Stedelijk Daklozen Team/ SDT)
• City Office for Homeless People (Centraal Onthaal): this year marks the 20^th anniversary of the department.
• Shelter for homeless EU migrants
• Rotterdamse Douwers: volunteer support network for youth (16-27 and everybody else)
• City walk: organised by experts with lived experience

 

Seminar and Workshop: Housing First for Local Authorities and Cities
Reserved for civil servants from local authorities and governments

This session will bring together professionals from local authorities and municipalities across Europe, offering an opportunity to connect with peers implementing Housing First approaches across their cities. We’ve reserved this space for civil servants from local authorities and governments to ensure candid, practitioner-to-practitioner exchange among colleagues working in government.  This session will be facilitated by the Housing First Europe Hub team and include key insights from cities including Rotterdam, Helsinki, Paris, etc.

Participants are invited to share their experience and questions on a range of topics:

• scaling Housing First across your city; 
• building and strengthening key partnerships across sectors to ensure success for Housing First;
• building relationships with housing actors to unlock more housing for Housing First; 
• reconciling the challenges of multiple levels and layers of government in delivering Housing First in cities; 
• Learning from research and data from cities across Europe including Rotterdam, Helsinki, Greenwich, etc., 
• Overcoming challenges and sharing key lessons

We encourage anyone interested in this session to contact Samara.Jones@housingfirsteurope.eu or Laura.Fritz@Housingfirsteurope.eu with their questions. 

 

Housing First Europe Hub Network and Community of Practice meetings

The Housing First Europe Hub will take this opportunity to organise meetings for its networks and communities of practice on:

• Housing First researchers
• Housing First for Youth
• Housing
• National Housing First Networks
• Trainers
• Housing First Managers
• Cities
• Housing First for Women

 

More to come! 

Other network meetings, activities and events will be added to this space over the next few weeks.  Please check back soon. 

Thursday 29 October 2026

10:00 - 17:00 

Welcome from the Housing First Europe Hub and the City of Rotterdam

Opening plenary session: Sydney Constantini - the intersection of health and the economic strength of the Housing First approach; moderated discussion with Freek Spinnewijn, Director - FEANTSA, and others experts on health and Housing First. 

Workshop sessions 1 & 2:

Workshops will ask participants and speakers to consider how a Housing First approach can be part of strategies to prevent homelessness through policy and practice.  Workshops will provide an opportunity to reflect on how challenges have been overcome, and to work together on plans for collective action to prevent homelessness and scale and support Housing First over the next few years. 

Workshops will focus on building bridges with key actors and will be organised along 8 themes, each featuring 3 workshops over the course of Thursday 29 October and Friday 30 October.  Registration for the workshops will open in September. Registered participants will receive an email inviting them to register for individual workshops in September.  

Conference thematic areas: Building bridges to support and scale Housing First

• Housing First and Youth
• Community mental health & health partnerships:
• Housing First in The Lowlands 
• Housing for Housing First
• Building sustainability and partnerships in Housing First for systems change
• Using and building the research base to further develop Housing First
• Innovations and adaptations in Housing First

 

17:00 - 21:00 Networking session and dinner: participants are invited to arrange meetings with colleagues and new connections.  Food, drink and activities will be provided to ensure a creative and collaborative atmosphere. 

Friday 30 October

9:30 - 13:30

Welcome and final set of workshop sessions. 

Spotlight plenary session on connecting with the local level and policy makers at national and EU level.  Reflections with decision-makers from the European Commission (invited) and the European Parliament (invited) on how the European Union’s Affordable Housing Plan and Anti-Poverty Strategy can be effectively used to support national and local work to scale up and integrate Housing First across homelessness and housing policies.  (This session may be scheduled for Thursday 29 October - depending on invited speakers’ availability.) 

A closing plenary session will invite everyone to reflect on progress made to shift to a Housing First approach at all levels - across services and practice, in relationships with partners across sectors, and at policy and planning level - and commit to collective action to work together for real impact in the next 5 years.