2023-10-23 12:33:20
The Stib announced on Monday that it had been granted additional resources by the Brussels government to increase security in metro stations and direct homeless people and wandering drug addicts to a suitable reception and care program. This will be done in collaboration with a series of social organizations specialized in this type of assistance.
The Brussels Region has seen a significant increase in homeless and dependent people in recent years. This societal problem, visible on the Stib network and particularly in the metro stations, “seriously harms the successful completion of the Stib’s missions and the attractiveness of public transport”, the company underlined in a press release. She says she has noticed an increase in the feeling of insecurity among travelers and its staff.
Furthermore, the circulation of trains in the tunnels and the presence of 900 volts constitute a real risk for the wandering and impaired public. There is also a risk for many critical infrastructures in metro stations.
“Finally, the metro network is not a place that allows the correct and humane treatment by social services of people who are wandering and under addiction to direct them towards adequate support.” The Stib has been collaborating for years with associations specializing in the care of these populations as well as with the police.
Faced with the unprecedented scale of the phenomenon, the Stib proposed to the Brussels government, in addition to the actions already put in place, a new social and security approach inspired by feedback from the RATP (Paris public transport).
The project provides for the establishment of a new internal team at the Stib responsible for assessing and directing drug addicts and wanderers towards reception, care and accommodation structures adapted to their specific needs. This staff, present 24/7 on the network, will carry out patrols and ensure the transport of beneficiaries to the appropriate reception areas in support of the associative work.
At the same time, the Stib will increase by 30% its number of Station Security Patrollers (PSS) set up in 2017 with the mission of ensuring the security of the stations. Their missions will be extended to the beginning and end of the night. In February 2023, a first social-health approach was brought to the problem of the increased presence of drug addicts and homeless people in metro stations through the financing and implementation of the SubLINK project, bringing together the Stib, the Lama Project, Samusocial, DIOGENES and Transit. This platform is supported by Bruss’Help.
The system which will be put in place by the Stib aims to strengthen and complement the work carried out by the associative sector within the framework of SubLINK.
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