At a time of growing income inequality and welfare retrenchment in many European societies, there is increasing pressure on access to housing for the poorest and most disadvantaged groups across Europe. Dr. Volker Busch-Geertsema has researched homelessness in both Germany and the rest of Europe for more than 25 years. In this short film, he discusses the role of social housing providers in accommodating marginalised populations, and the tensions between the meeting of housing  ‘need’ and the promotion of a ‘social mix’.

Dr. Volker Busch-Geertsema is a senior research fellow at the Association for Innovative Social Research and Social Planning (GISS, Bremen, Germany). He is a member of the European Observatory on Homelessness since 1995 and since 2009 he is the Coordinator of the Observatory and member of the editorial team of the European Journal of Homelessness. He has conducted a number of extensive research projects on different aspects of homelessness in Germany and Europe. He is co-author of “Measurement of Homelessness at European Union Level” (2007), has published eight books and a large number of articles and research reports, most of them focusing on homelessness, housing exclusion and poverty. Latest publications include an edited book on “Homelessness Research in Europe” (with Eoin O’Sullivan, Deborah Quilgars and Nichols Pleace, Brussels 2010) and “Homelessness and Homeless Policies in Europe: Lessons from Research” with Eoin OSullivan and Nicholas Pleace, Brussels, 2010).