Isn’t it time we took a fresh look at how the fight against poverty is organised in Brussels? Shouldn’t we try to overcome the silly division between the Samusocial and the rest of the sector? Shouldn’t we establish a firm basis for sharing our resources and our tools effectively (while preserving the specific role of each association)? Shouldn’t we structure and organise the necessary complementarity between public and private funds? Shouldn’t we bring together urgent humanitarian action (the old de facto priority) and reintegration/housing (the new declared priority) in a coherent, concerted and effective way (instead of treating them as opposites)? And so on.
These questions are all the more urgent as the current crisis comes just a few days before the publication of the implacable result of the La Strada census: “between 2008 and 2016, the number of people counted has nearly doubed (+ 96%)”, and against the background of the preparation of a new “order concerning urgent aid and reintegration aid for homeless people”, at the centre of which the future (and already controversial) Social Integration Office – Bureau d’insertion sociale (BIS)/Sociaal Inschakelingsbureau (SIB) – is still surrounded by a very thick fog … not unconnected to the Samusocial.
The “end of homelessness” is as much an agreed moral obligation as a political undertaking involving contradictory – not to say divergent – forces, which is no excuse for the current lack of clarity and confusion.
Could the Samusocial crisis present an opportunity to loosen tongues, to break certain political taboos and to come (back) to the table in a new way?
As always, DoucheFLUX wants this special edition of the Think Tank to be open to all points of view. What will it lead to? Impossible to say. Nothing is set in advance, and for good reason: perhaps there is still much to be (re-)invented.
To facilitate the discussion, if you would like to open the debate and propose your approach or your way of thinking at a first round-table discussion, please get in touch with Nicolas Marion (coordinator of the DoucheFLUX Think Tank): marionnicolas[at]hotmail.com
Wednesday 28 June from 12.00 to 14.00 (or later if those present want to continue the discussion).
At DoucheFLUX, rue des Vétérinaires 84 Veeartsenstraat, 1070 Brussels.
Prior registration appreciated (free sandwiches available): marionnicolas[at]hotmail.com