By: The ANFN
Families with three or more children are among those most affected by the current housing crisis. Despite this, recent European policies do not consider family size as a key parameter for assessing family vulnerability to this phenomenon.
Housing policies and large families
In January 2026, ELFAC (European Large Families Confederation) released a document entitled “Housing and Large Families Position Paper” with the aim of calculating the impact that the housing crisis has on large families and putting forward proposals to reduce the inequalities that weigh on them.
The study, which is based on Eurostat data, academic research and surveys conducted by ELFAC itself in 12 European countries, aims to highlight the structural obstacles that make current housing policies an ineffective tool when taking into account the problems faced by large families (including: limited access to housing of the right capacity, social stigma and limitations in financing and available housing options).
Family size is not recognized as a vulnerability factor in its own right in current housing policies (which instead take into account categories such as low-income families, young people, or the homeless). In addition to raising awareness of issues such as European demographic decline, social cohesion, and long-term sustainability, this paper aims to demonstrate how family-friendly housing policies are essential to ensuring social justice.
ELFAC’s proposals
The proposals put forward by ELFAC touch on several aspects that require radical revision and transformation (from the problems linked to the failure to recognize large families within European political dynamics to the profound gaps present in statistical studies, in which the category of large families is often forgotten).
In particular, ELFAC proposes to:
- Calculate housing benefits by giving equal weight to each child (without reductions starting from the second or third child, as happens in some European countries).
- Recognize large families as a distinct category , facing specific vulnerabilities. Families—and especially large families—should be specifically mentioned in the European Action Plan.
- Ensure direct access for families to EU funds for green home renovations : Future EU funding streams for green home renovations should be accessible directly to families, not exclusively to companies, associations, or investors. Families are the group that bears the greatest burden of the cost of these improvements.
- Ensure direct access by municipalities to EU funds for family-friendly housing policies specifically for large families.
- Harmonizing housing policies across Member States to ensure social cohesion, justice, and democracy.
- Increase statistical surveys regarding quality of life and housing conditions, specifically targeting families with three or more children.
The family at the center
With this recent document, ELFAC is advancing a vision that aims to lift large families out of the corner to which they have been relegated. For full and impartial social justice, families cannot be sidelined.