READ ALSO. Lisa became homeless at the age of 19: “People think that those who are homeless cannot or do not want to do anything. But so many things are out of your control”
Antwerp has no fewer than 3,454 homeless people, of whom 910 are children. This is evident from the count of homeless people by KU Leuven and the King Baudouin Foundation, in which Antwerp took part for the first time. It took place for the fourth time in 2023 and aims to collect clear figures about the scale of the phenomenon and the profile of the target group so that policymakers can work on it efficiently. In Antwerp, counting took place on October 20 last year. 39 organizations took part.
The count identifies both homeless people. What they have in common is that they are excluded from the housing market. “But visible homelessness is only the tip of the iceberg,” the researchers say in their report.
Homeless people sometimes even sleep in the storage room of an apartment building. — © Marc Wallican – W13
In Antwerp, most homeless people (38.7 percent) stay with friends and family. About twenty percent are already being cared for and are looking for a sustainable solution. 422 of the adult homeless are acutely homeless. They stay on the street, in night shelters, a car, a squat, a house without a contract, a garage or in a tent.
Hardly any homes for large families
Of the adult homeless people in Antwerp, 65 percent are men and 35 percent are women. About half of the women have children directly involved. When children are involved, in forty percent of the cases, women stay in a residential shelter or in temporary housing. But many women with children also end up in rented accommodation without a valid contract and often become victims of slum landlords.
“Access for large families to the housing market is extremely difficult: there is little or no affordable, high-quality housing for them.”
Koen Hermans
KU Leuven
“If we look at the number of children involved in this problem, we see that a significant group is part of a large family with four or more children,” says Koen Hermans of the Lukas research team at KU Leuven. “We then have to conclude that access for these large families to the housing market is extremely difficult. There is little or no affordable, high-quality housing available for them.”
422 of the adult homeless people are acutely homeless and live, for example, in their car, on the street or in a home without a contract. — © Marc Wallican – W13
This also translates into the figures for threatened evictions. This refers to people who had to leave their home within a month after the counting day, for example because the home was declared uninhabitable or because the court ordered them to leave their home. In Antwerp this concerns 148 adults and 116 children. “It concerns all kinds of families, but there are indeed many children involved,” says Hermans.
Family childcare
The fact that 910 children in Antwerp do not have a stable roof over their heads is an incoming figure. Also with Alderman of Social Affairs Tatjana Scheck (Vooruit). “These children share the care situation of their parent(s). Every child who does not have a safe roof over their head is one too many. One consolation is that not a single child was counted during the nightly street count,” said Scheck.
About thirty percent of the children counted are cared for in one of the city’s initiatives such as family shelters or emergency housing. “That is in addition to the initiatives of the CAW and others. With our family daycare (a form of care around the clock, ed.) we focus on those vulnerable, homeless families.”
Two people prepare their bed in the night shelter. — © Photo Marc Wallican – W13
But, says the alderman, the pressure on the various forms of care for families is high. “For them there is a huge shortage of housing in the city. We are currently converting a number of emergency homes in our Kadans chain approach in Deurne into emergency homes for large families. As long as there is a housing crisis and insufficient affordable/social housing is created, urban homeless policy must continue to fill those gaps.”
More than just housing problems
The research also shows that there is a clear link between homelessness and health problems. In Antwerp, eight in ten homeless people suffer from health problems. In 36 percent there is a suspicion of mental health problems, in 31.5 percent of an addiction problem. Moreover, those who struggle with addiction problems are often homeless for a very long time: approximately one in three is longer than two years.
At the same time, 210 people use healthcare facilities such as a psychiatric hospital or an institution for longer than necessary because they cannot find a sustainable housing solution, both within appropriate healthcare institutions and on the private rental market. This in turn has an impact on the waiting times for those who want to register with these institutions.
Homeless people can go to the night shelter for a bed and a meal. — © Marc Wallican – W13
In addition to Antwerp, the research teams in Flanders this year also included Ghent and Leuven. Based on those counts and the counts from previous years, the researchers estimate that the number of homeless people in the whole of Flanders is 19,479, of whom 5,946 are children (30.6 percent).
“We feel that as an urban policy we are reaching the limits of our powers and possibilities”
Tatjana Scheck
Antwerp ships
“The problems are becoming increasingly complex,” concludes Antwerp councilor Tatjana Scheck. “We therefore feel that as an urban policy we are reaching the limits of our powers and possibilities. We are therefore looking at other policy levels to also take up their responsibility to help avoid homelessness and to support sustainable solutions.”
Tags: children among homeless Antwerp Major shortage affordable housing families Antwerp
-
){kind=link}