2023-12-26 14:58:00
Employed people will soon have priority in the allocation of social housing in Flanders. The regional Minister of Housing, Matthias Diependaele (N-VA), has just received the green light from the Flemish government to introduce restrictions on access to this type of housing. The objective of the measure? Encourage beneficiaries to find employment.
This privilege of access for workers, compared to people who receive replacement income, should come into force on January 1, 2025. But that’s not all: a transition bonus, of up to 2,500 euros net, will also be available to them. paid when they switch from the social rental market to the private sector. The minister also hears “lutter” once morest lifetime leases. To do this, each social housing unit can be rented for a maximum period of nine years.
The announcement of this measure on Tuesday obviously caused a stir among the Flemish organizations defending the rights of social tenants, the Flemish Huurdersplatform (VHP) and Initia, who did not mince their words: “By granting working people privileged access to these low-rent housing, to the detriment of those without jobs, the minister is leaving the most vulnerable on the sidelines”they declared to the Belga agency.
“No stigma”
Could an identical measure see the light of day in Wallonia? The answer is clear: it’s a categorical no. “This Flemish policy consists of considering the fact of not having a job as a form of choice. This will reinforce the precariousness of the less well-off”we are told in the office of the Walloon Minister of Housing, Christophe Collignon (PS). “In Wallonia, complex family situations and the lowest incomes are given priority points in the allocation of public housing and benefit from capped rents.”
The socialist minister’s office also emphasizes that a rent allowance system was established at the beginning of 2023 for individuals who do not benefit from public housing. As a reminder, this allowance allows households with precarious incomes, registered on the waiting list to obtain social housing for more than 18 months and forced to rent a property on the private market, to receive an allowance ranging from 125 at 185 euros per month. “Part of our measures aim for healthy social diversity which levels society upwards rather than stigmatizing precarious family situations”we conclude, on the side of Minister Collignon.
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