A/HRC/31/54 commission for residents to advocate for housing rights alongside other civil society organizations.76 81. There are diverse models for ensuring participation of stakeholders in strategies to address homelessness. Brazil, for example, has created a participatory model for social policy that relies on policy councils of stakeholders. In Munich, Germany, special units for the prevention of homelessness have provided support in preventing evictions or repossessions.77 In Europe, FEANTSA has organized and advanced rights claims on behalf of homeless people in a wide range of legal and political forums. 82. There is no universal policy or legislative solution to homelessness. It must be addressed in multiple ways, engaging with the structural causes of homelessness in particular circumstances. Any chosen policy must address issues faced by different groups and support individuals in their own personal struggles. The FEANTSA survey of strategies finds that effective strategies must be evidence-based, comprehensive, multi-dimensional, rights-based, participatory, based on statutes or legislation, sustainable, needs-based and bottom-up. 83. All levels of government should design and implement policies, laws and strategies to prevent and remedy homelessness. Failure to do so reflects that homelessness has neither been recognized nor addressed as a violation of human rights. What is lacking at all levels is a shared commitment to ensuring the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing — and related rights such as life and health. As the Consortium for Street Children has stated, “the greatest challenge for all street-connected children is being identified and treated as a rights holder”.78 84. Since ensuring the enjoyment of human rights is a firm legal responsibility of all levels of government, policymakers can be compelled to incorporate human rights into their laws, policies and programmes, such as: consulting with homeless people throughout the policy development and implementation process; incorporating measureable goals and timelines into strategies; including monitoring and review mechanisms to ensure successful outcomes; and providing homeless people with a mechanism through which to claim their rights and with access to remedies. These are essential requirements for there to be meaningful inclusion of homeless people in the human family, restoring to them dignity, respect and protection under the rule of law. IX. Conclusions and recommendations 85. Widespread homelessness is evidence of the failure of States to protect and ensure the human rights of the most vulnerable populations. It is occurring in all countries, regardless of the phase of development of their economic or governance systems, and it has been occurring with impunity. The nature and scope of homelessness globally suggests society’s lack of compassion for the full scale of deprivation and loss of dignity associated with being homeless. It is a phenomenon requiring urgent and immediate action by the international community and by all States. 86. Homelessness is one of the least examined consequences of unabated inequality, unfair distribution of land and property and poverty occurring on a global scale. It is a result of State acquiescence to real estate speculation and unregulated markets — a 76 77 78 20 Response to the questionnaire from the organization FUNDASAL, El Salvador. See European Commission, “Homelessness during the crisis”, Research note 8/2011 (2011), p. 16. Response to the questionnaire from the organization Consortium for Street Children.