Hundreds demonstrate in Brussels for ‘dignified and affordable’ housing
Several hundred people took to the streets in Brussels to demand “dignified and affordable” housing, as part of European Housing Action Day on Sunday.
The organisers, including the Brussels Federation for the Right to Housing (BBRoW), are urging political leaders to draw up an ambitious plan to eradicate homelessness and significantly increase the number of social houses in the capital.
“Access to dignified, affordable and quality housing is a fundamental right, enshrined in the Belgian constitution,” the organisers said. They said that housing should never be a product intended to make a profit and regret that housing “is still largely considered a sound investment, concentrated in the hands of private players”.
“Today in Belgium, thousands of people sleep on the streets, while others buy houses to invest their money and make a profit,” BBRoW said. It criticised the fact that thousands of people cannot pay their rent - which is getting higher and higher on the private market - and that tens of thousands of others are waiting for social housing.
The organisers said they do not accept that a lack of housing and poor housing should be seen as inevitable. “The current injustice is the result of political and social choices,” they said.
They call on governments to "massively" expand the number of social houses, end evictions without rehousing, regulate rents, introduce an ambitious plan to eradicate homelessness and regularise the situation of undocumented migrants.
Demonstrators in Brussels, 6 April 2025 © BELGA PHOTO / VIDEO LOU LAMPAERT
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