Dear reader, 2023 was marked by two concerns which, as always at Streetnurses, quickly turned into action: creating housing for our patients and improving their mental health.
We launched the real estate foundation Casa+, which will soon commit its first acts.
Our aim being to demonstrate that the end of homelessness can only be achieved through access to affordable housing. In concrete terms, we do this by making housing available to associations and institutions that want to rehouse homeless people. The lack of affordable housing, together with the current housing crisis in Belgium, is precisely what we need to address in order to end homelessness.
In this respect, 2024 will be the year of communication and initial actions for the real estate foundation.
Another pressing issue is the mental health of our patients.
There are two reasons for this. First, the way we select our patients: they are the most vulnerable people who live on the streets and thus often suffer from serious mental health problems. In addition, we find that all our work on resettlement and stabilisation highlights these problems all the more. In the «traditional» system, a problem is usually considered «solved» when the person returns to life on the streets. But if we instead commit to a long-term strategy of stabilisation in housing, we are forced to find real answers to mental health problems. Some solutions can be found with the specialised mental health networks in Liège and Brussels. It is therefore a matter of finding skilled and willing caregivers, learning how best to work with them, and continuing to train our teams so that they can better support and guide our patients towards recovery.
In addition, 2023 was a year of great financial uncertainty for Streetnurses.
The rising cost of living and the inevitable (and relative) unpredictability of our income, were at the root of this. And yet a crisis is also a time of learning and clarity. Financial precarity has made us realise that our operations must be secured in the long run. We do this through sound long-term management of our financial resources, both in Liège and in Brussels.
It is therefore important that we anticipate the efforts and investments required, that we spread them over several years and that we take advantage of opportunities to secure the medium term thanks to multi-year budget forecasts.
To secure income, it is essential that we apply for and receive grants. This way, we not only ensure the long-term viability of our actions but also compel government agencies, both regional and federal, to make a clear social commitment to the problem of homelessness.
In addition, we should continue to rely on the undiminished support of our loyal donors. By making them aware of homelessness issues, we aim to encourage them to actively participate in our mission: putting an end to homelessness.
Their financial support allows us to remain innovative, launch projects or fund functions that are not yet recognised, and little by little we hope to change attitudes and the situation on the ground.
- Dr Pierre Ryckmans, co-coordinator and medical manager