Several hundred people have on Sunday afternoon taken to the streets in Brussels to demand “dignified and affordable” housing, as part of the European Housing Action Day. The organisers, including the Brussels Federation for the Right to Housing (BBRoW), are urging political leaders to draw up an ambitious plan to eradicate homelessness and significantly increase the number of social houses in the capital.
“Access to dignified, affordable and quality housing is a fundamental right, enshrined in the Belgian constitution,” the organisers said. They stressed that housing should never be a product intended to make a profit and regret that housing “is still largely considered a sound investment, concentrated in the hands of private players”.
“Today in Belgium, thousands of people sleep on the streets, while others buy houses to invest their money and make a profit,” stated BBRoW. The non-profit organisation denounces that thousands of people cannot pay their rent – which is getting higher and higher on the private market – and that tens of thousands of others are waiting for social housing.
The organisers said they do not want to accept that lack of housing and poor housing are seen as inevitable. “The current injustice is the result of political and social choices,” they declared.
They therefore call on governments to “massively” expand the number of social houses, end evictions without rehousing, regulate rents, introduce an ambitious plan to eradicate homelessness and regularise the situation of undocumented migrants.
