Campaign Badlük calls for solutions to homelessness.
Brussels ; 29 November 2021
With the image of a piece of cardboard as a 'mattress Badlük' and the launch of the first Brussels Sleep Out @Home, the NPO Street Nurses (Infirmiers de rue asbl) renews its campaign to make the Brussels public aware that homelessness can be solved. With more than 700 people sleeping on the streets of Brussels, the organisation wants to keep the whole of Brussels awake to put an end to homelessness together.
Now that, because of the season, public opinion is once again concerned about the many homeless people in our streets, and the shelter capacity once again turns out to be insufficient, Street Nurses urges us to work on real solutions.
"The question is not whether we have enough shelter to offer all homeless people temporary shelter from the winter cold, but whether we can ensure that these people find stable housing as quickly as possible so that they are no longer dependent on emergency aid. The problem is not the lack of winter shelters, but the low flow of people who end up in emergency shelters to regular, permanent housing," says Street Nurses. "If we do not ensure that we systematically take homeless people off the streets and re-housing them, we will continue to create emergency accommodation year after year. That cannot be the intention".
Street Nurses therefore urges us to stop regarding it as normal that in cities like Brussels or Liège there are homeless people. But the loopholes in the social safety net must be closed, there must be more social housing and we must continue to invest in intensive and qualitative guidance to lead homeless people to solutions for their situation. "Prevention, affordable housing, quality counselling and hospitality are the key words for us to work out a global plan to end homelessness", says Street Nurses.
Badlük
Therefore, at the end of November, Street Nurses re-launches its "Badlük" campaign, drawing the attention of the general public to the possibility of ending homelessness and asking for support for the organisation's actions.
The campaign can be seen through a mix of communication channels, thanks to the collaboration of a whole range of media: JC Decaux, Nostalgie, Métro, La Libre Belgique/ La Dernière Heure, La Meuse, BX1, RTC Liège, Artepub, Artemia, Guidooh, Belgian Posters, blowUP-media, Bruzz and Vivre Ici.
The campaign is the result of a collaboration with the Namur agency Expansion. This year the operation is being supported by KBC-Brussels, the National Lottery, Groupe santé CHC, CBC, Prefer, Expansion, Producteam and Hecht Printing.
Everyone outside!
New this year is the "Brussels Sleep Out @Home" action. With this action, Street Nurses challenges all inhabitants of Brussels to spend the long dark night of 17 to 18 December outside in order to draw attention to the problem of homelessness. The night offers the opportunity to reflect on the clichéd way in which we look at homeless people and how we can solve the problem in a structural way. The campaign is made possible by the pro bono support of the agencyAddretail.
More information and registration
Street Nurses NPO (Infirmiers de rue ASBL) work to 'end homelessness' in Brussels and Liège by guiding long-term homeless people towards a new life in a permanent home. Attention to their hygiene, health and self-esteem, cooperation with other organisations and the creation of housing facilities, as well as the mobilisation of the public, are the main levers in this process.
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