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The Belgian Minister for Urban Policy, Caroline Gennez, announced on Wednesday 18 January, in an interview with VRT News, the investment of 10 million in the Housing First model for the support of homeless people.

During the national conference “From dream to reality: ending homelessness in Belgium”, on 14 October 2022, Street Nurses brought together homelessness professionals, politicians, and citizens to reflect on actions and concrete measures towards ending homelessness at the national level.

The day was marked by constructive and valuable discussions which can trigger the necessary political changes. In anticipation of the report on the conference, here is a summary of the discussions with pictures of the event.

From 7 to 14 October 2022, the non-profit organisation Street Nurses will be running its “Dream of a roof” campaign. The aim is to invite citizens, companies, professionals in the sector and the political sphere to act together to put an end to homelessness.

How does one recover from a long life on the street that is so harmful for one’s health? Street Nurses have a simple answer: a home of your own is essential for survival and for long term health. Because homelessness is much more than a social problem – it’s a public health problem.

With the image of a piece of cardboard as a 'mattress Badlük' and the launch of the first Brussels Sleep Out @Home, the NPO Street Nurses (Infirmiers de rue asbl) renews its campaign to make the Brussels public aware that homelessness can be solved. With more than 700 people sleeping on the streets of Brussels, the organisation wants to keep the whole of Brussels awake to put an end to homelessness together.

Street nurses call for a prison system that leads to reintegration

From 19 November till 5 December 2021 will take place the National Days of Prison. A pluralistic group of associations and organizations instituted these days some years ago to inform and stimulate reflection about the prison situation in Belgium.

That situation is seriously worrying and was denounced especially by the Belgian Section of the International Observatory on Prisons: in addition to overpopulation and structural lack of staff, they now also suffer from all the problems caused by the Covid crisis.

July 2021 will go down in history as the moment when many Belgians became climate refugees in their own country.

Last week, the consultation commission on the "sustainable solution to the situation of homeless people in the Brussels Capital Region" published its recommendations. The 97 recommendations take a clear direction and are in line with the suggestions of the sector: access to housing, prevention, access to rights, administrative simplification, etc. All things that we as Street Nurses, together with other organisations, have been pushing forward for a long time.

Street Nurses is not involved in the hunger strike of the sans-papiers in the church of the Béguinage, the VUB and the ULB.

Nevertheless, Street Nurses is highly concerned about the people on hunger strike.

Like many others, we demand, expect, hope ... that a solution will soon be found for them. This solution can only be political.

You who has been protected by a legitimate governmental measure imposing a moratorium on evictions given the health situation, you are about to re-join the mass of those who, on September first, will be evicted.

When quarantine started, in March, hotels in Brussels have opened their doors to offer a total of 820 rooms to host the homeless people. Meanwhile, those infrastructures have closed and as off today, only 92 rooms are available (according to Bruss’help).

To “Infirmiers de rue” it is a big regret.

Organisations around the world are insistent that homeless people need better protection from Covid-19.