Increasing share of homeless women, children and people with migrant background in Belgium
An increasing number of children, women and people with a migrant background are homeless in Belgium, a major study commissioned by the King Baudouin Foundation concludes.
In 2021, research teams from Belgian universities KU Leuven and UC Louvain performed censuses of homeless people in the cities of Charleroi and Namur, in South-West Flanders, and in Vilvoorde and surrounding municipalities. In total, the researchers counted 3,847 homeless people in these cities and areas: 1,159 in Charleroi, 1,146 in Namur, 1,313 in South-West Flanders and 229 in Vilvoorde and surrounding municipalities. These figures are higher than first estimated. Similar censuses were held in the cities of Arlon, Liège, Ghent and the province of Limburg in 2020.
Researcher Koen Hermans (KU Leuven) identifies three important developments that are in line with international trends: the share of homeless women, children and people with a migrant background is increasing. "Our census showed that 30 to 35 percent of homeless people are women," says Hermans. Children account for 26 percent of the total number of people counted. People with a migrant background account for between 20 and 40 percent of those counted. The high percentages of people with a precarious residence status are also striking, especially in large cities.
The King Baudouin Foundation and the researchers will continue performing homelessness censuses in 2022, in collaboration with Flanders, Wallonia and the German-speaking Community. The government of Flanders is financing censuses in seven new regions. The goal is to move towards regular and uniform censuses throughout the country, in order to contribute to the development of a more efficient policy against homelessness.
