Number of allocations of social housing in increasing linePlaced at 07:40h in Flemish Parliament, living by Stella VansummerenIn the Flemish centre cities the number of allocations of social housing to prospective tenants increases by 12% in 2017 compared to 2014.

This is evident from the answer of Flemish Minister of Housing Matthias Diependaele to a written question from Open Vld MP Mercedes Van Volcem. Especially Aalst, Antwerp, Kortrijk and Turnhout are on the rise. "The city of Antwerp is still crowning the crown by offering as many as 1,658 prospective tenants a social housing in 2017," says Mercedes Van Volcem.De Flemish Government has made significant efforts in recent years to create important efforts to build existing social housing renovate and build additional social housing. This resulted in record investment in social housing last year. These efforts will continue in the coming years too. Flemish MP Mercedes Van Volcem (Open Vld) wondered what the effect of these additional efforts on the number of allocations of social housing to prospective tenants in the Flemish city centre cities. "We note that in half of the city centre there is an increase in the number of allocations. In West Flanders this is even at 3 in 4, only Roeselare has a decrease of 31% in recent years. Kortrijk experienced the biggest increase and made no less than 277 allocations under mayor Van Quickenborne in 2017. In Bruges, too, the offer has been on the rise in recent years," says Mercedes Van Volcem.Allocations to other nationalitiesWhen we look specifically at the number of non-Belgians who are assigned a social home in a city centre, we notice growth there even stronger. While it was 982 non-Belgians in 2014, a total of 1,227 will be added in 2017. This represents an increase of 25% and makes up 30% of the total number of allocations in city centres. Across all Flemish provinces, other nationalities accounted for 1,537 allocations in 2014, while in 2017 they were 2,095. This is an increase of 36% and accounts for about a fifth of the total number of allocations (11,044). The category of non-Belgians should in principle still be divided into a group of 'EU citizens', 'not EU citizens', and 'unknown'. The nationality of this latter group is unknown, among other things, because some housing companies simply do not keep nationality. The group 'unknown' also includes many Belgians. Mercedes Van Volcem makes a comment: "We see that the number of non-Belgians in Flemish social housing has been hovering around 15 to 20% for years. The effect of the 2015 refugee crisis on the number of immigrants in social housing is therefore not significant, contrary to what parties such as Flemish Interest constantly claim."" Nevertheless, the increasing efforts of this Flemish Government we notice that the waiting lists are not getting shorter. The rebuilding of even more social housing will therefore not be enough. In the near future, there will be some changes in the offing of social housing. For example, the Flemish Coalition Agreement states that the allocation of social housing will soon be done chronologically and that the points system of the social rental offices will be abolished. Cities and municipalities, on the other hand, can allocate (maximum) 50% of the offer to specific target groups. These may be, for example, single parents who immediately after a divorce seek a home as a temporary solution", concludes Van Volcem.