Places for homeless fail to materialise as temperatures drop
Politicians are at odds about the homeless situation in Brussels as temperatures dipped drastically in the last few days
Use empty office buildings, says SP.A
Now that temperatures are finally dropping to winter norms, some 150 to 250 people are thought to still be sleeping rough in the streets of the capital. Last year, federal asylum minister Maggie De Block promised a number of new beds, which have not been established. De Block eliminated a number of places at centres for asylum seekers, according to Brussels minister Brigitte Grouwels, forcing those people onto the streets and exacerbating the problem.
A further blow came when the mayor of the Brussels district of Sint-Joost closed the Gesú convent squat in November last year. About 90 of the 200 people who were living there have been rehoused. The Brussels region has a peak number of 400 accommodation spots available – insufficient for the numbers currently involved.
The number of illegal immigrants needing places in shelters this year, responded De Block, is lower than last year, while the number of asylum-seekers is down. She is monitoring the situation from day to day, her spokesperson said. Her department is due to meet with representatives of the Brussels-Capital Region on Thursday. “If it appears that there is inadequate shelter, then we will have to get back around the table,” De Block told the VRT. “People who need shelter have no use for political polemics.”
Pascal Smet, Flemish minister for Brussels affairs, meanwhile, wrote on his Facebook page: “It disgusts me that in a city of 1.2 million … all those people who have power but no responsibility are unable to solve what is in fact a very simple problem.”
Photo courtesy of Little Shiva/visibletrash.net
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