Cold Weather Plan : Concern and Anger in the Sector Following the End of Subsidies

Our organizations[1] condemn the federal government’s decision to eliminate subsidies for the Cold Weather Plan.

This pro­gram had allo­wed five major cities to imple­ment day and night mea­sures to accom­mo­date home­less people — men, women, and fami­lies with chil­dren — bet­ween Novem­ber and March.

Action

In this context, we are cal­ling on the press to cover the pro­test action taking place on Wed­nes­day, Octo­ber 8 at 10:30 a.m. in front of the Finance Tower (Bou­le­vard du Jar­din Bota­nique 50, Brus­sels).
A gathe­ring of sec­tor repre­sen­ta­tives will be held, with speeches by Chris­tine Van­hes­sen, Direc­tor of AMA, and the launch of a citi­zen peti­tion cal­ling for a struc­tu­ral poli­cy to end homelessness.

Rising Needs, Shrinking Resources

While near­ly 50,000 people are without hou­sing in Bel­gium, recent fede­ral deci­sions are wea­ke­ning and endan­ge­ring the most vul­ne­rable.
Dras­tic cuts to social rights, unem­ploy­ment exclu­sions, increa­sed pre­ca­ri­ty among women and stu­dents, and a lack of recep­tion poli­cies — all these mea­sures will heigh­ten pover­ty and increase the num­ber of home­less people.
In this context, it is all the more incom­pre­hen­sible that the fede­ral govern­ment has cho­sen to with­draw fun­ding from the Cold Wea­ther Plan.

The orga­ni­za­tions consi­der this with­dra­wal inco­herent : it contra­dicts both the Lis­bon Decla­ra­tion, which com­mits Bel­gium to ending home­less­ness by 2030, and the 2014 Coope­ra­tion Agree­ment on Home­less­ness, which reco­gnizes the need for coor­di­na­ted action bet­ween the fede­ral state, com­mu­ni­ties, and regions.

Our Demands to the Fede­ral Government :

• Meet with fede­ral autho­ri­ties as soon as pos­sible to present our demands, pro­pose concrete solu­tions, and hear what actions they intend to take ;
• Reverse the fede­ral disin­vest­ment decision ;
• Make the 2014 Coope­ra­tion Agree­ment bet­ween the fede­ral state, com­mu­ni­ties, and regions ful­ly operational ;
• Acti­vate the Home­less­ness Wor­king Group of the Inter­mi­nis­te­rial Confe­rence on Social Inte­gra­tion, Hou­sing, and Urban Poli­cy (CIM);
• Sup­port a struc­tu­ral, sus­tai­nable, and coor­di­na­ted poli­cy to com­bat homelessness.

[1] Nurses Street, The Island, the Brus­sels Plat­form Armoede (BPA), Bel­Re­fu­gees, AMA – Fede­ra­tion homes and sup­port ser­vices to the home­less, RWDH, A non-pro­fit orga­ni­za­tion, NPO Bene­dict and Michel, Dou­che­FLUX, Res­to­Jet, Cor­ner-Stone, The House in the Rue Verte, The Home Vic­tor of the Pre ASBL Three Doors, a Social Space Tele-Ser­vice“, The refe­rence to Article 23”, a Plat­form for Cross-cultu­ra­li­ty in Tour­nai ASBL asbl DIOGENES vzw, Source asbl, NATIVITAS asbl/vzw, ASBL Tri­angle, asbl Home Mont­fort, Non-Stop – Onder­weg vzw, MACADAM Asbl/Vzw, The Refuge LGBTQIA+ Opvang­huis, Alias non-pro­fit orga­ni­za­tion, Com­mit­tee of the Sama­ri­tan woman asbl/vzw ASBL IMP Pro­vi­dence – ser­vice Proxi­mam, The Foun­tain, the mater­nal House Paul Hen­ri­cot, The Assis­tance of Saint-Gilles, The Eglan­tier, Fede­ra­tion BICO, A Roof, A Heart and the Hobo vzw