As Belgium vowed to host 83,000 Ukrainian refugees by the end of 2022, Wallonia is falling behind on its promise of building collective housing units to accommodate 3,500 of these refugees, as only 483 places have been made available in the region.
Wallonia's Minister of Housing, Christophe Collignon, stated before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that nine communal housing units, with a total capacity of 483 seats, had just opened three months after the initial announcement.
In addition, 580 extra spaces should be available by the end of September, 700 by the end of October, and 869 by the end of November.
However, a little less than 1,000 spaces would still need to be established in order to reach Wallonia's aim of hosting 3,500 Ukrainian refugees by the end of 2022.
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He attempted to reassure committee members by stating that the upcoming arrival of the service provider to help refugees in their search for housing would also accelerate the collective housing building.
Furthermore, the Walloon Government is continuing to deploy modular housing in order to meet their target, with 30 municipalities having expressed their interest in hosting refugees and 64 plots proposed for the possible installation of 229 housing units.
Collignon concluded by stating that “other avenues are on the table and we are working to materialise them as soon as possible.”
