There are too few shelters for homeless people in Breda now that it is getting really cold at night. That says Street Council chairman Johnny Feskens. He fears that homeless people will have to rely on tents and sleeping bags when it starts to freeze. This while the guideline is that homeless people should be given shelter as much as possible during frost.
Johnny Feskens has been homeless himself and knows how difficult a return to a normal life can be. He is now chairman of De Straatraad. This organization tries to help homeless people off the street. “It makes me sad that not everyone can be helped and still sleeps in a tent or sleeping bag. That’s impossible!”
“There are many more homeless people than the municipality thinks.”
The Street Council sees many homeless people and is not happy with the number of shelter places that Breda has available. “The municipality uses the figures from Statistics Netherlands from an ivory tower point of view. They say there are about 350 homeless people in Breda. Only we speak to the homeless and homeless on the street and know that there are about 1540 at the moment. There is not enough shelter for that.”
Wim Goverde has also been homeless and has had a tough period. He has now got his life back on track and he also works for De Staatraad in Breda. “Many homeless people are not in the picture at care institutions and other authorities. They now live on the street and feel like they are on their own.”
“They feel abandoned.”
Wim therefore finds it extra important that De Straatraad makes the voice of these homeless people heard to the municipality of Breda. “There is a section of the homeless who have lost confidence in healthcare and government after many disappointments. They feel abandoned.”
Johnny would like to talk to the municipality and thinks of a kind of shelter where homeless people find their way back themselves. “If you look around, quite a lot of industrial halls in Breda are empty. Put homeless people in there with some money and they create something for themselves,” says Wim.
“The problems have not been solved for the time being.”
The municipality of Breda could not be reached for a response, but stated in an article by Breda Nu that they are working on a solution to the problems. “Where possible, we will implement these measures. However, these are not solutions that can be realized within a few weeks. We expect to have to deal with a continuing high occupancy in the coming period.”
Social workers advise homeless people to go to the shelter as soon as it freezes. Purely for their own safety. Municipalities are themselves responsible for providing adequate shelter in the event of frost. These problems have not yet occurred in Eindhoven and Helmond. Springplank040’s emergency shelter in Eindhoven has seventy places available. According to the organization, about thirty of these are now being used.
“We hold our hearts.”
SMO Helmond is a bit tighter. Of the fifteen places, about twelve are now occupied. “We hold our breath for later this winter, because we were already regularly full in the summer,” says director Kitty de Laat. Nevertheless, she is convinced that if more shelter is needed due to the freezing cold, she, the Salvation Army and the municipality will come up with creative solutions.