Brussels organisations take action to protect homeless from winter cold
Several Brussels organisations are taking measures to protect homeless people from the winter cold. In total, the Brussels-Capital Region has 3,250 places in emergency shelters for the homeless. An estimated 10,000 people are living on the streets of Brussels.
Organisation Bruss'help, which coordinates emergency aid and integration assistance for homeless people in Brussels, estimated at the beginning of November that the region has more than 10,000 homeless people. For those people forced to live on the streets, the winter months are particularly hard. For this reason, several Brussels aid organisations are taking measures.
At the Train Hostel in Schaerbeek, for example, 104 sleeping places have been provided for the homeless, 90 of which are for family members and 14 for single men. The shelter will remain accessible until the end of March but is already completely full.
There are also several other shelter initiatives, of amongst others the French-speaking Red Cross, BelRefugees and other civil society organisations. 12 of the 19 Brussels municipalities are also taking other measures, such as meal and clothing distributions.
The extra places in shelters are in addition to the structural 2,000 places in emergency shelters of the Belgian homeless organisation Samusocial, half of which are reserved for asylum seekers. This brings the total number of emergency shelter places to 3,250 spread over the Brussels-Capital Region. Which is not enough, as several aid organisations have pointed out.
The Extreme Cold Plan, a regional plan to protect homeless people from the freezing cold, only comes into effect in sustained freezing temperatures of minus 4 degrees Celsius. The plan provides 160 additional emergency shelter places when activated.
Team of non-profit Straatverplegers talks to a homeless person at Brussels Midi station © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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