According to Articles 29 and 31 of the Asylum Code, beneficiaries of international protection should enjoy the same rights as Greek citizens, receive the necessary social support, and have access to accommodation for third-country nationals lawfully residing in the country (Greek Council for Refugees 2025). However, in practice, significant gaps exist between this legal framework and lived realities, limiting effective access to these rights.

Concerning recognised refugees, until November 2024, the HELIOS programme functioned as the only nationwide integration scheme. It included a housing component in private apartments and was implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and other NGOs (Collective Aid 2024). Due to strict eligibility criteria, however, many beneficiaries were excluded and remained at risk of homelessness. Following the end of HELIOS, this gap has widened further, as no comprehensive state-led housing support mechanism of comparable scale has been fully implemented. Closures of NGO shelters have disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, including refugee women and children. According to the Guardian (Castellini et al. 2025), these closures were linked to funding cuts following the termination of international aid contracts, and over the following months, support networks across several  countries, including Greece, were gutted. The report further notes that one of the local humanitarian NGOs in Athens lost a third of its budget, leading to the shelter’s closure. 

Regarding asylum seekers, earlier EU-funded housing programmes, such as Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation (ESTIA), as well as government-led initiatives like Filoxenia, met a similar fate. These programmes ended in 2022 and 2021 respectively, and beneficiaries were relocated to remote state-run camps under a securitised approach framed as “migration management.”

A humanitarian NGO supporting displaced populations in Athens, Collective Aid (2024), has reported a rapid increase in growing complexity of homelessness, particularly in areas stretching from Victoria Square to Amerikis Square. The organisation estimates that the total number of homeless individuals may be significantly higher than official figures for the Attiki region, which often fail to capture “hidden homelessness.” This term refers to individuals on the move reaching Athens, living in inadequate or insecure housing, unable to afford rent or utilities, and it is becoming an increasingly pressing reality.

Reasons for homelessness and Different Realities

Importantly, homelessness is not merely an individual experience but a phenomenon shaped by broader socio-political and economic structures (Gouseti 2025). It can be argued that homelessness is something translated into reality through the complex interplay between these structures. At the same time, it is important to recognise that there is no handy, short, or single answer to address the reasons for homelessness. However, this section outlines several components of the reasons for homelessness to briefly capture the situation. 

According to Gouseti (2025), a distinctive characteristic of the Southern European Welfare System, centred on family networks rather than wage labour and a high rate of house ownership, shaped the nature of housing precarity and homelessness before the 2008 financial crisis. Then, the combination of the crisis and subsequent fiscal austerity marked a fundamental rupture in this social protection system, turning Greece’s welfare regime from one of relative security to one marked by constant precariousness and vulnerability. 

Under these circumstances, the situation has been compounded by the arrival of migrants, often from war-torn areas and estranged not only from their homeland but also from social connections and basic rights. Although asylum seekers are legally entitled to work once registered, several NGOs report persistent barriers to employment (Voutsina 2019). Even when they present all the required documents, they often face difficulties obtaining a Tax Registration Number (AFM, ΑΦΜ in Greek), which is required for employment. Refugees who live in camps are sometimes denied an AFM because they do not have a permanent residential or street address. As a result, they cannot access legal employment or receive benefits. 

In addition to the lack of income and housing policies, it should also be noted that affordable housing was already scarce in Athens before the arrival of refugees, due to the slow recovery of Greece’s residential property market. From 2018 onwards, property prices increased, driven by demand for short-term tourist rentals. Many property owners opted to rent their apartments through Airbnb and other platforms, rather than leasing them long-term to tenants. This has created an affordable housing shortage for both local residents and migrants.

Regarding the experiences of homelessness, Meraki, a grassroots NGO providing social services, reported that housing-related consultations constitute the most common category of support requested. They also mentioned the shortage of housing programmes, noting that it is not rare to tell visitors that no eligible housing options are currently available, especially for male adults. They also shared stories about children sleeping on the street with their families, expressing how frightening the night is due to the insecurity and fear of being deprived of their IDs or other important belongings.

As for “hidden homelessness,” mentioned above, referring to people living in inadequate conditions, ethnographic observations reveal that even when migrants gain access to housing programmes, precarious conditions persist. Frequent changes of flatmates or roommates create instability and cause stress and can expose individuals, in particular women, to risks such as sexual harassment. There are also sudden interruptions of housing programmes due to the financial constraints of host organisations, as well as forced exits, especially in the case of shelters for unaccompanied minors. When they officially turn 18, they are required to leave and end up on the street, with no option but to return to camps, often without knowing whether those camps will accept them again or not.

Conclusion

As suggested above, the realities faced by homeless migrants in Athens are concrete forms of deepening marginalisation processes. The increasing discourse of securitisation and the criminalisation of people on the move as well as humanitarian organizations accelerate the exclusion of certain populations from urban space, reinforcing their displacement and invisibility within the city.

However, alongside these exclusionary dynamics, grassroots and community-based initiatives continue to open up alternative urban possibilities. Through practices of solidarity and togetherness beyond the borders of citizenship and nationality, such initiatives can challenge the production of anonymous and invisible urban subjects (Tsavdaroglou 2024). They seek to transform spaces that are typically targeted for removal or control into spaces of care, visibility, and commonality that territorialise new transnational common spaces for the most vulnerable people, emphasizing that homeless migrants’ lives matter and deserve to be visible in the centre of the city. These practices ultimately emphasize the importance of solidarity as a lived social relation, as well as the re-creation of autonomy for migrants and homeless people, whose autonomy has been systematically denied.

As grassroots organisations, we can be part of the re-creation of space from autonomy to care and commonality. We can claim the right to the city and make marginalised people not invisible, but visible.

Written by Eri Yamamoto (Intern, The Social Factory – Athens)