Austria
HOMELESS WORLD CUP AUSTRIA
Homeless World Cup Austria work in partnership with organisations across Austria to build a network of street football projects. Their aim is to promote social inclusion through sport.
They offer support for people who are experiencing homelessness, or have done so in the past year. They also reach out for street vendors, asylum seekers, refugees and people affected by substance abuse.
Their men’s/mixed team is coached by Gilbert Prilasnig, former Austrian International, while their women’s team is coached by Emily Cancienne, who represented Sturm Graz in the Austrian League, and UEFA Women’s Champions League.
PARTICIPANTS
Men and women, 16 years or older, who are homeless, or have been homeless in the past year, street vendors, asylum seekers, refugees, those undergoing alcohol or drug rehabilitation or those who have done so in the past two years.
LOCATIONS
Nationwide
Country statistics
117 out of 189 in Human Development Index rating (UNDP, 2019)
$48,350 Average annual salary per person (World Bank, 2021)
80% of refugees leaving the Federal Care Scheme are at risk of homelessness
Austria has a population of 8.8 million, with almost two thirds of the population living in urban areas. The capital of Austria, Vienna, has a population of 1.9 million.
A landlocked country in Europe, Austria hosts a skilled labour force, featuring a large service sector and a small, but highly developed agricultural sector, as well as a high standard of living. The unemployment rate is the second highest since WWII, with the average unemployment rate at 7.35% (as of 2019), and unemployment between the ages of 15-24% at 10.5% (CIA Factbook, 2018).
Currently hosting around 146,000 refugees and over 18,000 asylum seekers, Austria has a history of supporting refugees and asylum seekers when it saw its first emergency with the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 (UNHCR, 2020). As of 2020, there were refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Russia, and Iran (CIA Factbook, 2020).
According to country’s Social Ministry, there were 15,090 people registered as homeless in Austria as of 2016. This is up from 12,050 in 2014. This number does not include rough sleepers who are not registered. Around 70% of all people experiencing homelessness live in Vienna.
More than 22,000 people experienced homelessness in 2019. In Austria there is no legislation in place in the Austrian constitution or in federal law to entitle people to support. As there is no national service, support services vary widely between states (Amnesty International, 2022).
The majority of organisations working in Austria, follow the European typology for homelessness and housing exclusion (ETHOS) developed by the European organisation working for homeless assistance (FEANTSA).
The inaugural Homeless World Cup took place in Austrian city Graz in 2003.
STORIES from the region
