On March 18, the Flemish government created the Central Registration Register (Cir) for social housing. Until then, each social housing society worked with its own registration system, which caused a lot of uncertainty.
The CIR must eliminate that problem. Anyone who wants to register for social housing must from now on do so via the new digital platform.
But even those who are already on the waiting list for social housing must reconfirm their file. If this does not happen, you will be removed from the list. Anyone who is on the waiting list and receives a rental premium must also reconfirm their file or risk losing that premium.
Since March 18, the Antwerp housing company Woonhaven has informed all 38,973 prospective tenants on the waiting list by letter. This happened in phases and last week the last letters arrived in the mail.
Social drama
So far, 19,128 people have reconfirmed their registration, almost half. This week Woonhaven also sent the first reminder letters. If you receive it in the mail, you still have two weeks before you are effectively removed from the list. “We realize that this is not enough,” says Sarah Devis, spokesperson for Woonhaven. “That is why we continue to try to reach prospective tenants in different ways and make them understand the seriousness that it is really important to reconfirm.”
Sta-an, the umbrella organization of Antwerp poverty organizations, is concerned about the figures. They fear a social drama for the deleted families. “Every deletion from the waiting list is one too many,” says Bart Van Eeckhoven (PSC Open House) who follows up the theme for the Antwerp poverty associations. We hope that the local housing associations will not decide to cancel at this time. The vulnerable situation of the people involved is not taken into account. The CIR is a digital system and for a large number of prospective tenants, the digital evolution is happening too quickly.”
According to Van Eeckhoven, Woonhaven’s communication was also lacking. “People were invited with one letter and a reminder letter follows after four weeks,” he says. “Those who work in the social sector can confirm that this is not enough. Woonhaven has now woken up and finally realizes that much more needs to be done to reach people.”
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“We really do everything possible to reach people,” Devis emphasizes. “We also send a text message and an email to draw people’s attention to the reminder letter. Prospective tenants can give us power of attorney so that we can follow up on their behalf. They can physically visit our Home Shop and also go to the people themselves with our partner organizations. We will look at how everything is going week by week, but we are of course bound by procedures laid down by Flanders.”
Information about registering at Woonhaven can be found here.
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