On June 19th, the European Housing Alliance held its inaugural meeting in Brussels, bringing together 120 in-person participants and over 700 online attendees.
The gathering represented all levels of government—including EU Member States, regions, and cities—alongside key housing stakeholders. The Alliance serves as an open platform for those dedicated to resolving Europe’s housing crisis. More than 650 organizations have already pledged their participation, including the European Large Families Confederation (ELFAC), which attended the event virtually.
The meeting underscored an urgent need to scale up affordable housing delivery across Europe, setting an ambitious target of 2 million new homes annually, which breaks down to roughly 5,000 homes per day. To bridge the gap between local action and EU-wide policy, the Alliance focused on data sharing, simplified funding streams, and establishing national hubs in every Member State. Key strategic priorities highlighted during the event included mobilizing investments, which received 57% priority agreement, and boosting housing supply, which received 45% agreement. There was also a strong emphasis on integrating underrepresented groups—such as tenants, landlords, individuals with disabilities, and youth, who currently account for only 4% of engagement—into data collection and policy design.
Moving away from passive learning, the Alliance is actively pushing for concrete policy change. It is currently championing initiatives such as the upcoming Affordable Housing Act, the Housing Simplification Package (with a call for evidence open from June to September), and the exploration of Community Land Trusts to curb market speculation. However, crucial gaps were identified during the discussions, particularly the absence of diverse voices from across the EU. Attendees noted that housing models cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all approach and that future policies must closely align with local regional cultures and histories.
ELFAC submitted formal feedback to the Alliance, calling for targeted policy reforms that directly address the interconnected housing, financial, and bureaucratic hurdles faced by large families.
Contribution of ELFAC
In 2025, 23.4% of households in the European Union (EU) included children. Among these households, 37.6% had two children, while 12.2% had three or more. Given that families comprise a substantial portion of EU households—and that over 25% of European children live in large families—it is crucial to evaluate how housing policies directly impact them.
Large families represent a highly vulnerable demographic that faces both systemic economic disadvantages and targeted discrimination in the housing market. They face pervasive discrimination when trying to secure rental housing across Europe, an issue often exacerbated by well-intentioned tenant protections. For example, under Spain’s 2025 legislation against squatting, large families are legally designated as a vulnerable population and cannot be evicted without the state first providing alternative accommodations. Because similar protective policies exist throughout the EU, landlords are often extremely reluctant to rent to families with multiple children, fearing long-term legal complications if tenants default (you can see the case we sent to the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women).
Even when landlords are willing to rent, simply locating an adequately sized home is an immense challenge. Across the EU, the average home size is 1.7 rooms per person, and roughly 17% of the general population lives in overcrowded conditions. While official statistics specifically tracking large families in overcrowded housing are limited, the available data strongly indicates that large families—particularly those in urban areas—bear the brunt of this issue. Because larger accommodations are often prohibitively expensive, this financial burden forces many families to relocate from cities or even leave their home regions and countries entirely. Compounding this economic strain, large families frequently face social stigma and strict financial exclusion; banks routinely deny them mortgages because lenders assume the parents cannot afford the repayment rates given their high cost of living.
Furthermore, a growing trend across Europe to restrict short-term rentals poses a distinct, often overlooked threat to these households. For instance, cities like Barcelona plan to implement a complete ban on short-term rentals by 2028. While these measures aim to return housing stock to residents, they severely limit the mobility of large families. Due to the high cost of booking multiple hotel rooms and the logistical challenges of supervising many children across separate spaces, large families rely heavily on short-term rentals to stay together affordably. These trips are frequently necessity-driven rather than purely recreational; according, for example, to the “Instituto Nacional de Estadística” (Spain), 37.6% of trips are taken to visit friends or relatives, which includes traveling to care for hospitalized family members or helping a child move for an Erasmus exchange. In the annual survey on family tourism by the “Sello de Turismo Familiar” (Spain), short-term rental apartments are always the second most popular option for families with children, after staying with relatives or friends. Consequently, the European Large Families Commission has expressed deep concern over how these bans will restrict essential family mobility.
Compounding these housing and travel challenges is the bureaucratic friction required to access state aid. According to a recent study titled Research for EMPL Committee (“Addressing EU demographic challenges: supporting large families and single parents”), administrative complexity acts as a major barrier to accessing support because families frequently must apply separately for child benefits, housing subsidies, and energy discounts through entirely different agencies. This fragmentation leads to severe under-claiming of benefits and increased psychological stress. Ultimately, when public support is fragmented, inaccessible, or underfunded, large families are forced to adopt difficult coping mechanisms, including relying on older children to provide childcare for younger siblings, sacrificing financial security, or accepting chronically overcrowded living conditions.
In conclusion, large families in Europe face a compounding crisis of housing insecurity, financial exclusion, and bureaucratic neglect. Well-intentioned tenant protection laws inadvertently drive rental market discrimination, while a severe shortage of affordable, adequately sized housing forces many families into overcrowding or displacement.
Furthermore, rising short-term rental bans threaten essential family mobility, and fragmented state aid systems create administrative barriers that prevent families from accessing vital support. Ultimately, without targeted policy reforms that address these interconnected housing, financial, and bureaucratic hurdles, large families will remain a highly vulnerable population forced to rely on stressful coping mechanisms to survive.
More information, including presentation slides from the meeting, can be found here.