It is estimated that there are approximately 1.2 million homeless individuals residing within the European Union. This figure has been on a consistent upward trajectory over the past few decades, largely due to the housing crisis and the widening inequalities that are affecting the most vulnerable households, particularly those with the lowest incomes.

In response to this alarming situation, emergency shelters have reached maximum capacity, and welfare benefits are proving to be inadequate. As a result, people are compelled to subsist in public spaces, occupying them by engaging in begging, establishing informal living spaces or occupying empty buildings.

In a number of European countries, the response to such behaviour has been to increase the criminalisation of homeless people or the activists who help them, rather than to provide appropriate care.

What are these repressive laws and practices? What are the consequences for individuals and for society as a whole? How can we break the cycle of the criminalisation of poverty?