The number of homeless people in Brussels is exploding and the Agora citizen movement wants to tackle this thoroughly. Her resolution calls for a real 'Housing First' policy in which a percentage of public and social housing goes to the homeless and associations that manage and tap into such real estate. be better supported. Agora's Housing First resolution is discussed on 28 September in the Housing Committee of the Brussels Parliament.
The problems in Brussels South Station require safety measures, but also require structural solutions. Housing First gives homeless people a roof and support and therefore tackles the problem at its root. Homeless organizations themselves advocate this approach and apply it. As in many European cities, Housing First appears to work, but Brussels policymakers do not provide sufficient guarantees to put it into practice.
Pepijn Kennis, MP for the citizens' movement Agora.Brussels, explains: “The government relies too much on the private sector to house the homeless. Associations receive support for psychosocial guidance for the homeless, but suffer from a lack of accessible housing. They put a lot of energy into the search for homes on the private market, with social housing companies or through municipalities and OCMWs. This encourages mutual competition and takes up time that could be better spent on social guidance. The government talks about Housing First but does not provide housing? Homeless people mainly have a housing problem, which causes psychomedical problems to accumulate.”
Proactively working on Housing First is simple: provide some social housing for the homeless, determine the rent based on the income of those people, reduce competition between organizations responsible for these homes and lower the standard of 24 users to be recognized. to become a Housing First operator.
Agora looks forward to discussing its resolution with concrete solutions in the Housing Committee of the Brussels Parliament on September 28 (2 p.m., room 201).