Train Hostel homeless shelter in Brussels will close

The Train Hostel homeless shelter in Schaerbeek that currently houses 103 people will close its doors on 31 March, prompting concern from non-profit associations working in the social sphere.

The former youth hostel reopened in March 2023 as an emergency shelter for homeless people, providing not only shelter and meals but also social and medical support. Its residents include 61 children and 13 infants.

The centre has already faced precarity. It closed after just one year of operation due to a lack of funding, but managed to open again last November as a winter shelter with the predetermined closure date of 31 March.

“Without permanent solutions, these families risk ending up on the street,” the Belgian Red Cross and Doctors of the World warned.

“The winter shelter is insufficient to effectively tackle the homelessness crisis. There is an urgent need for structural solutions to guarantee shelter and reintegration. The end of winter does not mean the end of the needs of homeless people.”

Since its reopening, Train Hostel has found solutions for several homeless families.

“After a few months in the centre, my situation in Belgium has been regularised. I have work, my children go to school and we will soon move into our new apartment,” one migrant mother told Bruzz.

“But I am worried about the other residents for whom no solution could be found.”

Doctors of the World is concerned about the medical and mental consequences of a return to the street for the centre’s current residents.

Between December and March, the organisation provided 140 medical and 84 mental consultations in the Train Hostel.

“This follow-up care stabilised their health and integrated them into the healthcare system,” the organisation said.

“All of this will soon be gone. Some of our patients are also so vulnerable that returning them to the street is unjustifiable, such as families with medical problems.”

Homelessness is a growing problem in Brussels, particularly among undocumented migrants. Many occupied abandoned or unused buildings during the winter as a result of a lack of places in formal shelters and a backlog in the processing of applications for asylum.

One such building on Avenue George Henri in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert was the subject of an eviction order this week.

About 70 people, including 12 children, had been occupying the former office building owned by the foreign affairs ministry since last summer.

The ministry obtained a judgement to have them evicted and police arrived to evacuate the premises early in the morning. According to a collective that lobbies for support of undocumented persons, the eviction took the migrants by surprise because the judgment was not properly served to them.

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert mayor Olivier Maingain claimed that everything was done according to the rules, adding that some of these families tried to enter and occupy another building in Etterbeek but they were ultimately prevented from doing so.

The office of social affairs minister Alain Maron said it asked the organisation Bruss'help to make contact with the collective to arrange for housing for the evicted migrants.

“The most vulnerable people should be able to be taken care of by Bruss'help in the reception centres it manages,” an aide said.

“For the others, we will try to find a building that might be suitable.”

Such a building would be an unoccupied place with whose owner the region could sign a hosting agreement, under fixed conditions and for a fixed period, enabling the Brussels region to provide financial assistance for accommodation.