Can one renovated empty house change how Liège tackles homelessness?

The Liège non-profit Sortir du bois has rehoused three people who had experienced homelessness in a house left unoccupied for two years, La Libre reported on 11 August. The Belgian project, built around renovating an unused property for shared occupation, has delivered a confirmed home for three residents; the precise tenancy arrangements, duration of occupancy and continuing support package have not been made public.

For people in Liège, the importance is immediate. This is not merely a charitable shelter bed but an attempt to convert an existing building into a stable place to live. That distinction matters in a city where the Walloon Observatory on Homelessness counted 2,160 homeless or inadequately housed people across Liège, Seraing, Herstal and Ans in its latest basin-wide exercise. One third were experiencing the most acute forms of homelessness, including sleeping in public places, emergency accommodation, tents, vehicles or squats.

Sortir du bois grew from volunteer work in the Coteaux de la Citadelle during the Covid-19 crisis. Its co-founder Philippe Mercenier and other residents initially carried food, water, tents and sleeping bags to people living on the hillside. By winter 2025, the organisation told the Belgian magazine Médor that it had helped secure continuing accommodation for around 30 people through studios, hosted stays, caravans and shared homes.

The newly occupied house marks a more durable turn. Nature & Progrès reported before its completion that Sortir du bois had found a sympathetic owner and proposed renovating an empty house in return for several years of use. The organisation’s argument is deliberately demonstrative: it does not claim that one property can end homelessness, but says citizen action can show that unused housing can become part of the response. Its message, repeated in earlier reporting, is that “it is possible”.

That claim meets a difficult structural reality. Nature & Progrès said Liège had identified roughly 1,150 unoccupied homes at the start of 2024, while major renovation costs and poor building conditions often discouraged owners from bringing properties back into use. Empty buildings cannot simply be counted as immediately available homes: ownership rights, safety standards, permits, renovation finance and suitable social support all affect whether occupation is viable.

The public-sector approach is broader and more formalised. The City of Liège, led by Mayor Willy Demeyer, presented a €5.4 million Territoire Zéro Sans-Abrisme programme for 2024 and 2025. It included €2.1 million for the municipal property agency to acquire housing, €600,000 to expand the social rental agency’s management of private homes, and funding for associations, healthcare and individual case management. The city framed the task as increasing housing supply while providing strong social and medical support, rather than treating a key handover alone as the end of homelessness.

Wallonia similarly describes Housing First as immediate access to housing accompanied by intensive, multidisciplinary support. The regional government extended ten Territoire Zéro Sans-Abrisme pilot projects, including the Liège-Seraing scheme, until 31 December 2026, although it explicitly provided no additional funding with that extension. This places the volunteer project inside a recognisably Belgian policy debate: whether authorities can move from emergency management to lasting housing quickly enough, and whether vacant private property can be mobilised without weakening legal safeguards or resident support.

There is no significant EU-institutional role in this individual rehousing. Housing and social assistance remain principally local, regional and national responsibilities, even though the project reflects the wider European shift towards housing-led responses. The centre of gravity remains Liège: three people now have a home, while thousands across the wider basin remain homeless or precariously housed.

Attention now turns to whether the three residents can remain securely housed, what accompaniment they will receive and whether Sortir du bois can persuade more owners to offer empty properties. The larger test for Liège and Wallonia is replication: converting an inspiring exception into a safe, adequately funded model without pretending that volunteer energy can replace public responsibility.