Not only larger Flemish cities are struggling with a steadily increasing population of homeless, smaller towns are in trouble too. Herentals, Turnhout and Sint-Truiden, towns with a population between 25,000 and 45,000, are running out of places to accommodate the homeless magazine Knack reported this week.
Herentals (Antwerp Province) has no more reception places available explains Mayor Mien Van Olmen. "Hotels are our last resort, but even then we are not able to offer shelter to everyone." Turnhout (Antwerp Province), meanwhile, has resorted to using cabins in nearby holiday parks as temporary accommodation for the homeless. These smaller Flemish towns are following in the footsteps of cities like Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, where homelessness has been on the rise for some time now. Currently, there are over 2,000 homeless people in Ghent alone.
Experts attribute the increase to a variety of factors, such as the war in Ukraine, inflation and rising energy prices. The biggest factor might be the lack of housing. The average rent keeps increasing, and over 18,000 people are currently on the social housing waiting list. Local governments and experts blame Flemish Housing minister Matthias Diependaele for not taking the problem seriously enough. In an opinion piece in Knack, businessman Wouter Torfs called the Flemish action plan against homelessness "a first but often too cautious step". The solution does not lie in more shelters and extra temporary beds, he wrote, but requires a "fundamental change".
"I see a lot of empty houses on the private market," concluded Van Olmen. "All those empty houses, while families with children end up on the streets. It makes me feel that something is very wrong with our society."