A draft law recently proposed by Hungary’s Ministry of Interior would allow local authorities to „expel homeless people from public spaces” and to sanction „sleeping on the streets”.

We have an ongoing campaign against this proposed legislation, and we need your help.

Please help us in letting the Minister of the Interior know that the adequate response to homelessness is housing, and not police harassment.

Please send the following statement (or your own personal views) to the Ministry of the Interior [[email protected]] with a Bcc copy to our organization [[email protected]].

Dear Mr. Pintér,

I heard about a draft law recently proposed by the Ministry of Interior that would allow local authorities to „expel homeless people from public spaces” and to sanction „sleeping on the streets”.

I am deeply concerned that the Hungarian government is taking punitive measures to respond to the problem of homelessness – measures that, by their very nature, are incapable of alleviating poverty, social exclusion and housing deprivation. The reasons for rough sleeping are to be found in the structures of inequality and in the inadequacies of social policies. As a result, these are the spheres in which change is necessary, if we want to put an end to homelessness. Increasing the social housing stock and the level of housing assistance, and radically improving the condition of homeless shelters would also be possible progressive steps.

For all these reasons, I ask you to withdraw the proposed legislation and stop the criminalization of homeless people.

Yours sincerely,

Please include your organizational affiliation into the email, and feel free to forward this call for others.

Our statement has already been signed by supporters from England, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Holland and France.

Thank you for your support!