Dear Participants,

For several years now, Polish National Federation for Solving the Problem of Homelessness, which associates the major Polish organizations supporting people in a homelessness crisis, has the honour and pleasure to realize the project "Overcoming homelessness" as a part of the programme of the Minister of Family and Social Policy of the same name. Its aim is invariably to provide the Polish NGOs, the practitioners of helping people in a situation of the greatest exclusion, with innovative, effective and proven methods of support and prevention of the problem of homelessness.

This year we have the pleasure to invite you to a cross-sectional conference devoted to various aspects of solving the problem of homelessness. Among other subjects, we would like to draw your attention to housing solutions in the perspective of awaiting deinstitutionalisation of social assistance services with a particular emphasis on the experiences of the first projects implementing the housing first approach in Poland, support for rough sleepers not using the institutional assistance, especially in the area of health – both mental and physical, and finally, a broader view from the perspective of the European Union and the possibilities of financing services in the forthcoming ESIF programming period.

As every year, we hope that the knowledge and good practices provided and the creation of a space for factual discussion among experts, researchers and practitioners, will transform into a better quality of assistance, greater effectiveness in reintegration of the homeless people, development of local homelessness prevention systems and implementation of innovations in these systems. At the same time, due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, for the first time we are forced to hold the conference online, but we hope that this will not affect the quality of the event and your satisfaction with participating in it. As every year, we also hope that we will all be united by a common vision that solving the problem of homelessness is possible.

We wish you an enjoyable and fruitful participation in the conference!