5 things families need to know after Brussels loses 1,000 emergency shelter places

Samusocial’s free 0800 99 340 line operates around the clock for shelter requests, information and reports concerning people in distress. Its mobile teams can assess someone on the street, provide basic assistance and direct them towards appropriate services, although Bruss’help cautions that neither a bed nor an immediate visit can be guaranteed when capacity is exhausted.

Families should also approach the CPAS in French or OCMW in Dutch—the Public Centre for Social Welfare—of the commune or gemeente where they are actually staying. Federal guidance from the Public Planning Service for Social Integration says that, for a homeless person not living in an institution, the competent CPAS/OCMW is normally the one covering the person’s factual place of residence. That can be where the family sleeps, even without a conventional address. Ask for proof that the request was submitted. If the office considers another CPAS/OCMW responsible, official rules say it must transfer the application within five calendar days and notify the applicant in writing.

People who have registered a request for international protection with the Immigration Office—Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken or Office des étrangers—should not rely solely on the homelessness network. Fedasil says applicants who do not immediately receive a reception place can register on its waiting list; children, women and other vulnerable people receive priority. Registration does not guarantee a bed that night, but it preserves the route into the federal reception system.

The Fedasil Info Point at Rue Héger-Bordet/Héger-Bordetstraat 3, 1000 Brussels, can answer questions about procedures, medical care and legal assistance. Its published telephone number is 0800 32 746, available from 13:00 to 16:00. The office cannot allocate a bed itself, Fedasil stresses, so applicants must still complete the waiting-list process. People already granted protection in another EU country may face different reception rules and should seek individual legal advice rather than assume that another family’s decision applies to them.

When contacting Samusocial, a CPAS/OCMW or Fedasil, give the family composition, children’s ages, pregnancy status, disabilities, medication needs and any risk of domestic violence. These details can affect vulnerability assessment and referral. A pregnant person with pain, bleeding, breathing difficulty or another acute symptom should contact emergency medical services through 112 rather than wait for a shelter decision.

Fedasil states that asylum applicants awaiting accommodation retain access to medical assistance and can seek legal help. Its website explains how to request payment of medical costs before visiting a doctor, hospital or pharmacy. People without sufficient resources and without regular residence should ask the CPAS/OCMW about aide médicale urgente or dringende medische hulp; despite its name, that Belgian scheme can cover medically necessary care more broadly than an ambulance emergency, subject to the required assessment.

Brussels has 19 communes/gemeenten, each with its own CPAS/OCMW, while emergency coordination involves regional bodies such as Bruss’help and operators including Samusocial and BelRefugees. Asylum reception, meanwhile, is a federal responsibility administered through Fedasil. This division explains why a family may have to contact more than one institution and repeat parts of its story.

Services commonly operate in French and Dutch, but English availability varies. Ask explicitly for an interpreter or bring a trusted person where permitted. Keep photographs or copies of Immigration Office papers, identity documents, medical certificates, prescriptions, children’s school information and every written refusal or appointment. A refusal from one service is not necessarily a decision about eligibility under another system.

The Brussels Deal began at the end of 2022 as a temporary federal-regional response to shortages in Fedasil’s regular network. According to a Belgian parliamentary committee record, the Brussels regional administration contracted operators including the Red Cross, BelRefugees, Samusocial and the Ukrainian Voices Refugee Committee. The programme expanded to 2,000 places and also became intertwined with Brussels’ broader homelessness response.

Federal Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt argues that funding should track federal need. She has pointed to a decline in the transit list to roughly 1,000 single men, about half of whom were said to be staying with relatives, friends or acquaintances, and has said the federal government should not finance places used for responsibilities outside her asylum portfolio.

Brussels Social Action Minister Ahmed Laaouej, Samusocial and Bruss’help contest the practical logic of that distinction. They say occupied capacity cannot be removed cleanly from a citywide network and warn that the consequences shift towards communal welfare offices, hospitals, emergency shelters and the street. Samusocial says Brussels Deal funding previously covered close to 40% of its nearly 1,300 emergency places.

The scale of the wider pressure will become clearer after Bruss’help’s next homelessness count, planned for the night of 15 to 16 October 2026. Until then, the number of families who will obtain alternative accommodation, remain with acquaintances or sleep outside is not known. For those seeking help now, the workable sequence is to contact Samusocial, file a request with the locally competent CPAS/OCMW, register with Fedasil when asylum reception applies, document every step and use 112 whenever health or safety becomes immediately critical.