Winter accommodation for homeless fully occupied by Gesú squatters

SamuSocial, the Brussels service for the homeless, has started turning away families looking for accommodation, arguing that the additional capacity laid on for the winter period has been fully taken up by former squatters from the Gesú convent.

SamuSocial has space for 450 people, but only a limited number of places suitable for families; all of those places have already been taken up by 96 members of 18 families from the convent. The Gesú convent, in the municipality of Saint-Josse, was cleared of almost 200 squatters, including 90 children, at the beginning of the month. Some of those were put up temporarily in social housing, while the others were taken in by SamuSocial.

Last week the Brussels region's secretary for housing, Christos Doulkeridis, promised to find housing for the families now living in the homeless shelter on Rue Royale. However despite repeated requests, SamuSocial said, no progress on the question has been made.

In the meantime, other families showing up at SamuSocial looking for accommodation are having to be turned away, the organisation said. They have now turned to federal migration and asylum minister Maggie De Block, who last week promised 300 extra places for homeless in Brussels – a plan aimed at avoiding the scenes last winter of entire families camped out on the concourse of the North Station before being removed by police to a “tent city” set up by volunteers. According to SamuSocial, the moment has now come for those 300 places to be opened up.

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