France/Late cold: homeless services in Walloon Brabant scramble to cope

The late cold snap of the past few days has been relatively exceptional. It's been a difficult time, especially for the homeless!

In most cities, the "extreme cold" plan has been lifted since the end of March. As a result, many homeless services in Wallonia and Brussels are having to make do with what they have. This is particularly the case in Walloon Brabant. The province has no real night shelters, but accommodation units are offered here and there, via a series of social services coordinated by the Relais social du Brabant wallon.

Furthermore, the province has not benefited from a real cold weather plan. Instead, it put in place a series of measures to respond to requests as best it could, with the means at hand. Normally, throughout the year, even with the collaboration of numerous players, including the CPAS, resources are limited. The cold snap of the last few days has obviously not helped matters. So it's the energy, inventiveness and remarkable work of the social players that is enabling the underprivileged, the poorly housed and the homeless to find help in this early spring, when Jupiter's whims have had the better of us.

Nivelles opens its box

Listen to our audio report shot on Wednesday in Nivelles. We went to L'Ouvre-Boîte, a day center for the homeless and disadvantaged. Since the cold snap in April, the number of requests has risen by 50%, forcing the relevant department to improvise!

Source: www.rtbf.be/