Winter shelter Bruges offers 125 homeless shelter: “No typical clochards”
Due to the freezing cold, Bruges provides night shelter for eighteen people until Monday. Then there are ten again. There were many applications, especially in February and March. If there was insufficient space in the night shelter, people could sleep in four hotels.
“We are still seeing an increase in homeless people in Bruges. First of all, we use the Havenstraat for the roof and night shelter of eighteen places. When these are full, we have a partnership with hotels, which has led to 430 overnight stays this winter.” , says Pablo Annys, alderman for Social Affairs in Bruges.
“No cliche”
Most homeless people are between the ages of 25 and 45, but the number of young people and the over-65s is also increasing. The cliché image of the clochard is wrong. Sven got into trouble due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances and lost everything. “I’ve been in the night shelter since January 10. I’ve always tried to do it myself, but eventually you get so deep that you can’t get out. I hope within a month or two I will have my documents to own house or apartment.”
“People often think that they are typical clochards, but they are not,” assures Thibault Jonckheere of welfare association ‘t Sas. “There are often other problems that make people homeless and that is why it is important that the people in the library or the city guards know how to deal with them and who to send them to so that those people can get the appropriate help.”