The City of Brussels will open some 50 emergency sheltered places for homeless people in the King Baudouin Stadium during the freezing cold, announced Brussels city councillor for sport Benoit Hellings.
The decision comes in response to the growing need for sleeping places for homeless people, a need that becomes more pressing as temperatures fall well below freezing.
"Those places will remain available as long as this cold period lasts; we will keep them open for at least ten days," Els Wauters, spokesperson for Hellings, told The Brussels Times. A decision on the future of the emergency accommodation will be taken thereafter, depending on weather forecasts.
The City of Brussels is acting at the request of the Brussels-Capital Region, which needed 50 places at very short notice. "We are purely responding to their call for facilities."
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People will be able to spend the night there in heated rooms, meaning they will not be sleeping rough when temperatures are expected to hit -10°C some nights this week. The emergency shelter will be run by the organisations Bruss'help and the Red Cross, which will also coordinate the transition from emergency shelter to the "regular" system.
Bruss'help and the city's sports department will visit the site today and make sure the sheltered places are in order as soon as possible. The spaces in the stadium are heated and people will also have the possibility to shower there. Importantly, any homeless person in need of shelter is welcome, the shelter does not cater to a specific target group.
