Brussels’ Train Hostel reopens for homeless families

The Train Hostel in Schaerbeek is reopening this year to house the homeless until March 2025, the French-speaking Red Cross has announced.

“Winter is approaching, and with it the implacable cold that threatens the most vulnerable – among them, entire families, single mothers with their children, including infants, find themselves on the streets, with no other solution to protect themselves,” the organisation said.

“Against this backdrop, the Train Hostel is reopening its doors as part of the winter plan, to provide temporary but crucial shelter for these families in distress. For a few months, families will be welcomed with dignity and supported in their search for lasting solutions.”

The former Schaerbeek hostel, renovated as emergency accommodation, opened its doors in March 2023 as a result of a partnership between the Belgian Red Cross and Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which provides medical care for the residents.

But in March 2024, due to a lack of sustainable funding, the centre had to close. The Red Cross said it ensured that each family was rehoused in temporary alternatives.

This year’s reopening is not permanent, but rather part of emergency accommodations made to assist families during the cold winter months, when freezing temperatures can be lethal for those without proper housing.

The Hub Humanitaire, a day centre offering unconditional reception to migrants and vulnerable people in Brussels, said it had been receiving an average of 40 to 50 families without accommodation solutions every month since January 2024. Last weekend alone, it counted eight homeless families with children.

“At the Humanitarian Hub and during the daily street rounds carried out by the teams of volunteers, we can observe the increase in the number of homeless families and the lack of reception places,” the Red Cross said.

“We continue to call on the authorities to consider short- and long-term prospects for both groups, whether they are homeless or in need of international protection. The urgent need is not simply to offer shelter for the night, but to create a support system, a pathway to stability and social reintegration.”